Kingdom see, Kingdom go
by Gojiraja
Summary: King Julien continues his adventures in the Pride Lands alongside the local lion cubs and a seemingly just ruler.
1. When parties go strange

Chapter 1 – When parties go strange

It had been a day since water had returned to an animal reserve in Africa, where all the animals rejoiced to celebrate the end of the terrible drought. Now that the water had returned, the animals were celebrating the of their precious liquid with an enormous party hosted by....................

"Come on everybody, let's go and party!" King Julien, the ring-tailed lemur proclaimed to his followers in his thick indian accent, which all thought he had brought water to their once dry lands near Kenya, though it had actually been a lion named Alex. His bright orange eyes shined as he danced his way to his advisor.

"Ah, Maurice….." King Julien began instructing to his loyal advisor, Maurice the Aye-Aye lemur. "…….the king that is me wants _you_ to take a mental note of the animals that will be competing in the Melon-Head contest, the _ones_ for the pee-nut contest, and the _other_ ones for the Dug Grub contest."

Maurice thought for a moment to make a mental note, and finally caught on. "Got it Julien, oh I forgot to tell you, Dave can't be making it tonight for the Limbo and Dug Grub contest."Maurice informed King Julien with his smooth jazz musician like voice.

"What and why not?" Julien asked.

"Well, because the poor guy came down with an awful case of the _Weasles_." Maurice reported sadly.

"Oh dear, dear, dear, dear, dear, well my thoughts go out to him very much, but _hot dog _let's continue the _fiesta_!" King Julien replied with a change in mood to change the subject.

King Julien and Maurice continued walking until they came into a large dry plain filled with partying animals, celebrating the end of the drought. Everyone was either doing the tango, or already joining in for contests and "almost" fine dining. The meals being grubs or whatever the animals could find on the ground or on bushes and trees. However, an enormous cake sat behind King Julien's throne, made by Julien's well-known friends the New Yorkers.

These were four african animals that had originally lived in a zoo located in the famous Central Park, composed of a lion named Alex, a zebra named Marty, a hippo named Gloria, and a giraffe named Melman.

The cake was meant to be eaten by every animal on the reserve for the main event in the celebration.

"Ah, hah, hah, hah, huh, Maurice let's sit down for a drink, and then we'll get pounded by giant mallets at the Fun field." Julien said, filled with excitement and energy, and Maurice walking proudly with his bushy tail floating behind him.

Julien arrived at an exceedingly large boulder where Marty the zebra, was squishing fruits into juice using his large hooves, and receiving help from the other zebras."Oh, two giant-sized Slurps for me, and uh, Maurice…"

"…..I'll have one grape juice please." Maurice finished for Julien.

"Two giant-sized Slurps for the _King of Parties_ and one grape juice for his _Party Planner are coming your way_". Marty the Zebra immediately began squeezing several juices from different fruits for the beverages.

"Right here Julien, and right here for my man Maurice." Marty handed them their drinks, which were being carried in a nut shell instead of actual cups, and they immediately began drinking. Julien chugged down the entire giant-sized "shell" filled with Slurp, which happened to be mango juice, and finished quickly. Maurice however took his sweet time finishing up.

"Hey Marty, how's my best pal doing?" Alex the lion, the hero behind the drought's end, asked as he ran excitedly towards Marty.

"So far this party's crack-a-slacking." Marty explained clearly to Alex.

"Crack-a-slacking, what does that mean?" Alex never heard Marty use this expression back in New York, their original home before being stranded in Madagascar and later Africa.

"Crack-a-slacking, it's like crack-a-lacking, but also very relaxing."Marty happily began to get in the mood of the evening, and had the urge to relax and enjoy.

"So Marty, are you going to the dance-off tonight?" Alex asked.

"Sure, I'll see you there."Alex looked down for a moment and then agreed "Okay, I'll catch you later then Marty, Melman and Gloria are joining as well, so don't miss out." Alex said before skipping off.

"Sure thing Ally Al."

Julien and Maurice finally finished their drinks and decided to head off to the contests.

"Okay Marty, we'll be off to the contests man." Julien proclaimed happily.

"You guys keep the party going!" Marty called out to the two lemurs as they happily trotted towards the middle of the party. They made their way through many crowds, trying not to get trampled by the party animals, which were all bigger than the two lemurs. Julien high fived everyone he met, as well as Maurice. Julien and Maurice then came across Melman, a giraffe, and Gloria, a hippo, who were discussing the party.

"Whoa, hey Julien, Maurice, ya'll got it going on!" Gloria called out to the two approaching lemurs.

"Hello Gloria and Melman, how are the two of you doing?" Maurice asked Melman the giraffe, and Gloria the hippo.

"Oh so far it's well, you know I'm still trying to find confidence in myself since I no longer wish to be much of a hypochondriac, but so far uh, no success." Melman explained to Maurice, but Julien wasn't paying attention since he was too busy biting his fingernails.

"Oh I'm sorry Melman, don't worry you'll be a good Witch Doctor to all the animals."

"Hey the contests are starting, get your groove on, get your groove on!" Gloria exclaimed as she and Melman made their way towards the crowds.

"See you guys, I've got to go limbo until I'm an inch taller!" Melman exclaimed happily.

"Alright everybody I'll see you at the V.I.P seats, it's nothing personal to the others but come on, I'm better than them!" Julien explained happily to the others. Maurice thought that was a little awkward for the other animals if they heard it, but that's Julien for you.

Everybody gave farewell and headed off to the contests in their separate ways. King Julien and Maurice then sat down in their V.I.P seats to watch the contests.

"Maurice did you tell the chimpanzees to install my springy chairs?" Julien asked the Aye-Aye.

"Yes King Julien, I had three chairs installed." Maurice explained to the ring-tailed lemur.

"Three chairs, but why?" Julien asked.

"Well……." Maurice began to explain, but was cut off by a shrill voice, which belonged to Maurice's answer: Mort.

"Hi King Julien, how are you!" Mort, the cute little Pygmy mouse lemur called out to the king as he approached Julien and Maurice.

"Oh no Maurice, he is so cute that he is so annoying!" Julien explained disappointed.

"King Julien how are you mm, hm, hm." Mort said happily with his enormous eyes that made up one-fourth of his head.

"Get up Mort, how many times do I have to tell you, do not be near the king's feet." Julien explained to the little lemur as he sat down along with them.

"How do I work this thing Julien?" Maurice asked.

"I don't know, ask the python." No sooner had he said that when a large purple python came out of the bushes.

"Did you hissssss King Julien?" Joka the python said in his bone-chilling dialect.

"Yes, give me the controls to the chairs you wierdo." Julien ordered while holding out his hand. The control immediately was put on his hand by Joka.

"Enjoy sssssssir." Joka said and slithered away.

"Thank you very much Joka!" Maurice called out, and Mort waved happily and giddily to the ominous looking snake.

"I sssssssssay, did I even know how to work the chairs?" Joka asked himself with a sneer, even though he already knew about the secret booby traps inside the chairs, that contained enormous springs each that would definitely launch the three lemurs out of the reserve. Joka was tired of being mistreated by the lemurs just because he was cold-blooded, so he decided to get rid of the three once and for all.

"No, I didn't think so." Joka said as he followed his reptilian friends to the party, where they had a reserved area because the mammals thought they would cause trouble.

"Okay Maurice, let's begin to go up and down, ah, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!" Julien said as he began to push random buttons on the devices, which were connected to the springs, and only one button launched the chairs.

"Oh come on man work, work, I tell you work!" King Julien then got frustrated and began to push and pound all the buttons on the device.

"Come on man, work, oh, ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!" King Julien, Maurice, and Mort were then catapulted into the air much to Joka's pleasure.

In the air, Julien, Maurice, and Mort kept flying in the air for a whole fifteen seconds before crashing onto the ground. Maurice landed onto the ground, Mort landed into a crack on the ground, and Julien landed on a cactus, on a crack in the ground.

"Ow, oh, ow that singes and burns the royal buttocks!" Julien yelped as he began to jump in pain and began to pull spines off his butt. Mort whimpered as he struggled to get free from the large crack in the ground, and Maurice dizzily walked towards Julien.

"Man that was one heck of a fall Julien." Maurice said heavily dazed. Maurice looked around the new environment, which was a barren wasteland.

"Uh Julien….." Maurice began to inform Julien about their surroundings.

"Yes Maurice?" Julien asked the Aye-Aye with spines in his butt.

"…..I think we've got a problem." Maurice finished saying as he attempted to get Mort out of the crack.

"No, you think Maurice, we've gone away from the party, and now we'll miss the contests." Julien explained, now panicking. Maurice looked at the barren wasteland surrounding them. Mort finally was successfully pulled out of the crack, and was now alarmed by the wasteland. Mort was extremely uncomfortable being in the middle of a wasteland, so he began to freak out.

"King Julien, where are we!?" Mort asked the troubled "king". King Julien didn't have the slightest clue of where they were, so as usual, he did what he secondly did best; improvise.

"Uh, well let's see um, well, there are cacti, and deserty like all over the place everywhere, so we must be in a planet filled with people….." Julien began.

"….people?" Mort questioned the panicking ring-tailed lemur.

"…yes Mort people, savage people from the savage city, this must be the Big Apple Desert, or better known as…..B.A.D in New York, that's it, we're in New York at last!" Julien proclaimed to Maurice and Mort.

"B.A.D……..King Julien, is that something you made up just now?" Maurice asked as Mort happily clapped and giddily pointed at the sky, where shadows began appearing, dropping feathers…….

"Well of course not Maurice." Julien answered the Aye-Aye.

"Can you prove that?" Maurice asked the self-proclaimed lord of the lemurs.

"Yes, because that looks B.A.D!" Mort pointed at the sky in fright as vultures swooped down and landed in front of them. Julien stood petrified as Mort hid beneath him.

"Mort does not be near the king's feet." Julien whispered to Maurice as he picked Mort up from Julien's "royal" feet. The vultures began pecking each other to the front of the crowd. Suddenly a vulture, bigger than the rest, began to make its way to the front of the group. His head was flat, with two bulging yellow eyes that spoke of bane.

"Well, well, well it looks as if we have stumbled into a morning snack." the leader of the vultures spoke.

"Better than a snack, early breakfast!" one of the other vultures shouted. The vultures were then about to feast on the three lemurs with hunger visible in their eyes.

"Stop everybody!" King Julien commanded. The vultures immediately stopped in their tracks, beaks wide open.

"What, and why should we, what makes you think you're worthy of living?" The leader asked the determined king.

"Glad you asked birdy, for I am the continent's best and number one "King of Parties"." King Julien proudly proclaimed.

"Oh, and how does that interest _us_?" one of the vultures asked him.

"Well because he can make any animal feel special." Maurice lied.

"Hmmm, well what can he do?" The leader asked Maurice.

"Well see this guy, he enjoyed my parties so much, and had so much fun that he killed himself!" Julien pointed to a large wildebeest skull being carried in his arms. The vultures hissed and attempted to keep going forward.

"If you let me and my _co_mpadres live, I have several rare delicacies you can seduce and enjoy going down your throats." Julien lied, but for getting out alive, it was a good time to lie. The vultures were drooling terribly from hunger, and savoring their beaks.

"It's a deal then _pal_." the vultures all agreed to let them live, but quite hastily was their decision made as Mort stood quivering violently, nearly collapsing from total fright.

"Say, why don't you hang out at our place, we got some good scoop on the scumbag everyone calls a king here." the leader told the lemurs as they mounted the vultures getting ready to leave the wasteland.

"King, whoa, wait _I_ am _King_ Julien, the _original_ _King_ of the lemurs." Julien proclaimed.

"Well I'm pretty sure you would have been a way better king than that _**lion**_." the vultures explained.

"The scoop on King Scar is…….." the vultures began.

**----Thirty minutes later----**

"……and then the hyenas entered the pride lands. I blame Mufasa for letting them in, and they have wiped out half of our flock, oh, it was a complete massacre, you should have seen them all, flapping their wings aimlessly. Poor guys, they should have known better than to fight for food going up against those ………" little did the Leader know that King Julien, Maurice, and Mort jumped off of the vulture's back ten minutes ago.

"Guys, where did they go to, uhh, those three are _definitely_ our next meal, for I think we've been had." the leader threatened. The vultures flew off in search of the lemurs.

"Hey, how did you know they were gone?" A female vulture asked.

"Well, because you're missing your tail feathers, that's why!" The leader responded with a glare to the female, known as Ruby.

"Ugh, why did they have to take my tail feathers, I just groomed them." With that, Leader, Ruby, and the other vultures departed out of sight from Julien's eye.

"Whoa, excellent landing Maurice, that was perfect!" Julien exclaimed to the Aye-Aye as they gently landed on the ground, using the vultures'feathers as makeshift parachutes.

"Why thank you Julien, I knew I came here for a reason."

"Alright, we will go to the pointy boulder _mentioned_ by the creepy birdy thingies, and _negotiate_ with this "King Scar"." Julien explained to his followers.

"Um Julien, you don't even know where the boulder is." Maurice informed Julien.

"Shut up Maurice." Julien quickly said.


	2. Friends of the savannah

Chapter 2 – Friends of the savannah

The evening was slowly coming to an end in the savannah. The sun began to lower itself down to reveal shadows of jagged view. The mood became sinister with cackling on the grassy plains, as the shadows began to walk towards a boulder of enormous proportions. Vicious predators began to rise out of the ground, their bodies concealed in darkness with their horrible, mocking laughter.

A lion cub who had been attempting to grab a shrew with her paws began to shudder right at the sound of laughter approaching, and fled to a nearby shrub. The young cub with wide cerulean eyes was grimacing at the sight of hyenas approaching the large structure which was Pride Rock, the home of a lion pride.

Unfortunately for the lionesses living there, the hyenas and lionesses were forced to live together under the rule of King Scar, the current ruler of the Pride Lands, a large savannah containing animals of all sorts.

"Hey, nice pounce on that gazelle back there Shenzi, but Ed agrees with me that I had the element of surprise." A trio of hyenas was making their way to their sleeping area, all around the enormous Pride Rock. The lead female Shenzi, the witless follower Banzai, and the clumsy brawn Ed had begun to bicker about their recent hunt.

"Nah Banzai, I think that "element of surprise" thing was just you yapping after I clawed your behind!" Both Shenzi and Ed began to laugh at Banzai, who pouted at them.

"Yeah, well you guys are no play at the waterhole either when it comes to ostrich stalking." Banzai looked at Ed, who had tail feathers sticking out of his mouth.

The young cub was still watching from the shrub, but was quickly pulled back by a paw.

"Nala are you crazy, you can't be seen by these poachers!" Kula, another young cub with a somewhat olive skin pelt, nearly shouted with fright. Nala, the lion cub Kula had pulled towards her, simply shrugged her off.

"Relax Kula, the hyenas have just hunted, and they don't care about getting another bite for hours now." Nala told Kula with a smile on her face. Kula still felt unsure.

"Yeah, well you're not supposed to be so near the tall mountains, remember what your mom said?" Kula eyed Nala so she would consider going back, but Nala simply shrugged her off.

"Come on Kula, why are you so scared?" Nala asked with a smug. Kula still continued to plead.

"Come on Nala, how about a snack back in the den instead, I know how much you like Zebra." Kula said with a wide grin, making Nala finally come in.

"Okay, I guess I am a bit hungry." Before Nala could say anything else, she was pushed back towards Pride Rock by Kula. Kula used her head to continue to nudge her onward, while the hyenas disappeared in the distance.

"Yeah, well you're lucky they didn't catch you, if you _do_ know what hyenas do when they see lion cubs." Kula told Nala as they ran towards Pride Rock as fast as they could.

"Of course I know what hyenas do if they see you, believe me I know, Simba and I once went to the Elephant Graveyard remember?" Nala saw Kula nod, but Nala couldn't hide it. She had a saddened expression on her face.

"You miss him don't you?" Kula asked, and Nala looked at her.

"Yeah I do," Nala explained with a sigh "I mean things really haven't been the same since he, well, died."

Kula nodded and began to slow down her pace. She thought strenuously before her eyes widened with an idea.

"Hey, why don't we go explore the aardvarks' burrows after lunch, I'm sure they'll let us go in this time." Kula said with glee. She wanted to get Nala's mind off the terrible accident, where the past ruler of the Pride Lands Mufasa and his son Simba died in a wildebeest stampede.

Just then, a vicious shaking was beginning to start from a nearby bush. Nala and Kula leapt back in surprise as a shadow leapt on top of them………………….only for Nala to flip the figure over with her hind legs.

"Nice try Chumvi, I'll always remain number 1!" Nala exclaimed to Chumvi, a dark brown cub with a large tuft of fur on his forehead. Chumvi was helped up by Kula and Nala, and Chumvi coughed in disgust as dirt began to enter his mouth.

"Aw come on Nala, can't you let me win for one time?!" Chumvi asked with a smirk, to which Nala shook her head repeatedly no.

"Nope, you're just going to have to learn how to beat my awesome tactics of the hunt." Nala told her friends with pride as she stood on top of a boulder, looking down on her two companions. Kula laughed at Nala posture.

"Wow Nala, you really are a growing girl……….you look like you're lead huntress already, calm down!" Kula exclaimed to her as Nala leapt down right onto Chumvi. He smiled at Nala as both cubs struggled to gain the upper hand, but Chumvi still managed to stay down with Nala's front paws restraining him down.

"Yup, you'll be lead huntress alright!" To Chumvi's remark, Nala grinned happily as she let him get up by lifting her front paws off. Kula coughed on purpose to get her friends' attention.

"Hello, we've still got to go and eat." Just as Kula said this, all three friends smiled with mild expressions.

"Race ya!" Chumvi said as he took off without a trace. Nala and Kula angrily stared at Chumvi in the distance, and immediately took off after him, laughing together the whole way.

"Come on Nala, you've got to run faster if you want to be the "queen of all hunters'!" Chumvi called out from behind, but Nala wasn't running behind him. Kula laughed as she caught up to him.

"Look in front of you dummy!" To this, Chumvi turned and was tackled by Nala. She smiled as Chumvi fell to the ground.

"How did you…….." Chumvi was then cut off by Nala explaining.

"Shortcut, I took the rocky path over there." Nala said with a grin. Chumvi was helped up by her, and they entered the den for lunch.

"You really will be the lead huntress someday princess." Chumvi said as they walked towards the lionesses' kills in the back of the cave.

**Short Chapter 2 up, sorry about it's length, but I'm working a lot on school work during these last two weeks before Christmas Break. I will add more to it on Chapter 3, and I do plan to include the Madagascar Penguins into the story. Hope you're enjoying it so far. Please review if you have anything to say…**


	3. Unexpected company

**A review from author hankoholic is missing because I accidently deleted my story, and had to start over.**

Chapter 3 – Unexpected Company

As Nala and her friends had a pleasant dinner in the Pride Lands, the lemurs in the outlands had nothing to eat but the bugs that flew in their mouth by accident. Julien was right near collapsing, Maurice was sulking as he trotted along, and Mort was energetic enough to skip wearily ahead. Mort was ahead of his other two companions, but a beetle flew in his maw as he passed through tumbleweed. Mort gagged and coughed vigorously, until Maurice acted quickly to force the beetle out. Maurice picked up Mort and pressed his gut, to the point where Mort wheezed it out. The beetle was just about to fly away, until Mort grabbed it and placed it in his mouth to eat.

"Mmmm, I like the crunchy ones!" Mort happily exclaimed to a worn down Maurice. Maurice placed him back down and then breathed a deep sigh.

"Fourteen hours, and no sign of any grassland or savannah nearby, why'd I ever jump off that vulture anyways?!" Maurice exclaimed with anger, only to be comforted by Julien, who all of a sudden came out of his miserable form.

"Ah Maurice, we did not have anything to give to Choyo and Chewa, so we _had_ to jump off!" Julien said with an abrupt end. Maurice raised an eyebrow to the lemur king.

"Wait a minute, you know their names?" Maurice said with a puzzled expression smeared on his mug. To this, Julien nodded.

"I was listening to their bickering okay, got a problem with that Maurice?" Julien said with his arms folded to his chest, head held up high, eyes closed, and back turned to the Aye-aye's direction. Mort then began to tug on Maurice's pelt.

"Uh, Maurice," Mort said. ", can you look over th……" Mort didn't get the chance to finish his sentence because a quarrel had commenced between the two larger lemurs.

"Well, maybe I do, because you still should have stayed on those vultures your majesty, we could have escaped the first chance we got once we arrived to a reserve." Maurice explained to Julien, only for Julien to defend his actions in a poorly managed way.

"How dare you Maurice, to tell your king what he should have done, instead of telling him on what to do next!" Julien exclaimed.

"Maurice, can you please look over the…………." Again Mort could not finish talking because Maurice had begun to speak again.

"You know your majesty, as well as I do, that we can't really decide on what to do next, since we're still in the middle of nowhere." Maurice said, with his head looking right at Julien's eyes.

"_Maurice_!" Mort cried out.

"What is it Mort?!" Maurice finally asked.

"Look over there, lion" Mort held out a finger to a medium sized lion trotting across the rocky landscape. All three lemurs immediately were relieved to see another animal, and were anxious to ask him many questions.

"Ha, ha, ha Maurice, Mort, we'll be alright after all, we'll be alright!" King Julien exclaimed to his two lemur friends. Maurice and Mort were happy as well, but Maurice decided to approach this opportunity, with caution.

"Okay King Julien, all we have to do, is get in view so the lion can see us, then we will stop him, and kindly ask him for directions." Maurice explained to the lemur king, who was getting impatient.

"Okay Maurice, we will follow your careful plan in a caring way, which we will proceed to do carefully, just kidding!" Right after he said that, Julien sprinted towards the mysterious lion, and was followed closely by Maurice, with Mort on his shoulders.

"Your majesty, wait, you can't just approach strangers like that, wait up!" Due to Maurice's loud warning, the lion spotted the lemurs, and gave them a menacing snarl. Julien stopped in his tracks, and stood perfectly still. The lion had golden fur, had brown eyes filled with emotion, and a scruffy dark brown mane. The lion was slowly making its way towards the lemurs.

"Maurice, go back, I think it is hungry too!" Julien said in a hushed whisper. Maurice obeyed and began taking slow steps towards the south, where they had been walking. The lion however, continued to move closer towards the lemur gang. Julien stared at the lion, and took two steps backwards. To his view, the lion took three steps closer. Mort got off of Maurice's shoulders, and moved four steps backwards. The lion moved six steps closer. Maurice grabbed Julien and Mort by their hands, and they all took seven steps backwards. To their prediction, the lion moved eight steps forward, impatient and ready to pounce.

"Okay Maurice, you remember that dance we had back in Madagascar every April?" Julien asked his friend, who vigorously nodded yes. Julien smiled, and looked straight ahead. The lion crouched down, laid low. Julien was about to take a step backward, but to fool the lion; he quickly dragged his friends forward. The lion pounced at the lemurs' position, only for Julien to leap onto the lion's back and pound on his back with various break dance spins and leaps. Julien twirled around the lion's mane, and jumped energetically on his spine. The lion yelped in shock, and shook Julien off. Maurice then caught Julien by dancing the tango with him in midair.

"Oh Maurice, you've still got it!" The lemur king said as he fled, only to be swiped by an incoming paw. Julien, Mort, and Maurice flew across the terrain, and landed on the bitter and dry dirt. The lion held the lemurs down with his two enormous paws, ready to feast.

"Ah, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, you don't want to eat me, I'm important from where I come from, all we want is to get back there, please, please, oh please!" Julien looked at the lion with moist eyes, and the lion stared at the lemur, sniffing his scent. Julien felt awkward staying put as the predator smelled his fur with curiosity.

"Ah, what is it that you are doing?" Julien asked the lion. The lion released the lemurs immediately right after Julien had said that. The lion tilted his head in confusion.

"Your scent, it smells familiar." The lion said in a calm tone. The lemur king smelled himself, and looked up puzzled.

"What, I only smell……………._the freaks_." Julien realized his scent matched that of his friends back in the animal reserve.

"Ah, do you know Alex, or maybe Zuba?" Maurice asked the lion with wide eyes. The lion's eyes became bright.

"You know Zuba the Alpha Male?" He asked. The lemurs nodded to him.

"Yeah, he rules the area where we live, only we can't find our home." Mort said with sadness. The lion now seemed friendlier to this.

"So you guys are from Zuba's domain?" The lion asked the lemurs, who all nodded.

"That was where I used to live, right after I left to find a new pride……………..so tell me, how did you survive the hunters lying around there?" The lion asked, now all warmed up to the lemurs.

"Let's just say……………………….we flew." Maurice said with his eyes darting left to right, to which the lion turned puzzled. Julien approached the lion with strict posture.

"And just who are you anyways freak?" Julien asked. The lion snapped out of confusion.

"My bad, my name is Ni, I left my home, Zuba's pride, several weeks ago, oh and sorry about my attempts to eat you." The lion placed a paw on his lower jaw as if trying to look apologetic.

"Ah dont sweat it, we always forgive." Maurice said in his soothing jazz musician voice. Ni looked surprised to see the lemur speak Swahili.

"You do?" Ni asked with a smile on his face. Julien stuck his hand out, and rotated it around as if saying "a little". Ni hadn't talked to another animal in weeks ever since he had left Zuba's pride, and he almost felt thankful for his new companionship.

"Ni, where were you going?" Mort asked the now friendly lion. Ni held out a paw out towards the east.

"I'm headed towards the Pride Lands, I've visited three savannahs for a pride already, none of them worked out, and so the Pride Lands are next on the list." Ni said. The lemurs looked at each other deviously.

"I don't suppose you can use some assistance for expansion do you?" King Julien said with a sly grin towards Ni. Ni turned around and smiled warmly.

"You know what, maybe you guys could tag along if you'd like." The lemurs cheered and walked alongside Ni towards their future of uncertainty. The lemurs all looked at each other, realizing they were now traveling with an assumed predator.

"Ah, just to make things clear, lemurs aren't your favorite snack are they?" King Julien placed his finger to his teeth in worry. Ni thought about it and turned around.

"I don't know if I ever had lemur, but you shouldn't worry about my carnivorous instincts." Ni told them. Mort was walking alongside them peacefully, until he shrieked with terror, pointing at the sky.

"Vultures!" Mort screamed in fright at five vultures scanning the ground. Ni laughed.

"Don't worry about them, vultures only eat nonliving animals." Even if what Ni said was true, the lemurs hid under him to be clear from view. Julien's pupils shrinked as the vultures flew right above Ni.

"You do not understand, they're looking for us because we promised Chewa, their leader, that we will give to them all of the best animal meats." Julien said under a soft tone. Julien's second in command gave him a puzzled look.

"Who's we your majesty?" Maurice folded his arms.

"Okay, me, I, yo, whatever, we need to stay hidden!" Julien continued to look at the sky, where sure enough, Chewa searched the lands for the three prosimians. Ni looked at his new friends awkwardly, until Ni spotted a high ledge over a small river up ahead.

"Look guys, water." Ni turned to see the lemurs leap out from their hiding spot and jump into the water. The three miscreants greedily slurped up the cool refreshment, and smiled.

"Ah, finally we find water that is not from a cactus Maurice." Julien said with his fur dripping with water. Ni took his share of the water as well, and stared at the ledge before them. It had long blades of grass on the very top, with large, majestic boulders reflecting the sun's light. Ni knew they had arrived to their destination, and sooner than they thought too.

"We're here." Ni said to the bathing lemurs. All three looked at the ledge's top, and climbed to the top. Ni followed closely behind, and they all awed at the sight of a large baobob tree, antelopes, wildebeest, giraffes, zebras, ostriches, watering holes, and an enormous pointed rock. King Julien smiled with delight at the sight of the pointed rock, and hugged his two lemur friends.

"Yes, we made it, ha, ha, ha, ha!" King Julien ran towards the majestic rock, leaving his friends behind. Julien skipped across the plains, feeling the flowers and trees honoring his arrival with a beautiful breeze. Julien was almost to the rock, and leapt onto it.

"I made it, I made it, I, what, why is Pride Rock so puny?" Julien picked up Pride Rock with his hand, and saw a hornbill perch up next to him. It had an angry expression over it's face, and in Mort's voice, it mocked him.

"King Julien, who's he foolin, what a gullible fool, look you can see him drool!" The hornbill mocked. King Julien sank down, and mourned over his failure.

"King Julien!" The hornbill continued. Julien looked at it with droopy eyes, and was ready to take more mocking.

"What do you want!" King Julien yelled. The hornbill continued to speak.

"King Julien!" It repeated. Julien shook the bird.

"What, what is it, I know I already failed, now what?!" Julien asked the hornbill eye to eye.

"King Julien!" Mort called out abruptly. King Julien awoke screaming.

"Ah, Mort!" King Julien screamed, but then saw Ni, Maurice, and Mort stare at him. Julien was at first confused, but then it came to him.

"Oh, it was just a dream, oh, never mind." Julien said with a nervous chuckle, happy to see his friends shrug and go back to snooze. Julien smiled as he saw Mort cuddle up next to his feet, until he heard Mort mutter in his sudden sleep.

"King Julien is the best leader of all the world............." Mort happily whispered. Julien looked worried to hear this, and laid down. He began to hear the hornbill's mocking again, and wondered if it was right. What _if_ he, the famous King Julien, could not even successfully lead a fly to a large pile of dung, even if his life depended on it. Julien then began to doubt his kingly powers, and his chances of making it back home.

Julien turned over to sleep, without telling Mort to let go of his feet.

**Alright, Chapter 3 up, and Mheetu's appearance will be in Chapter 4. I might also begin a short Christmas story with Julien and Timon. Remember to review in case you have any comments whatsoever.**


	4. MeToo!

Chapter 4 – Me-Too!

Most animals would hardly step out of their homes during the sun's descent. Giraffes hid their heads into levitated trees, hippos buried their maws deep inside the pools, and all the zebras became adjacent to each other which formed an enormous work of color-blindness. No predator could stomach the thought of eating after the long hunt they had previously held.

Hyenas and jackals began to shift into sleep, unbeknownst to them that a foreign animal was making its way towards a burrow for the day's end.

This foreign creature was worried at the sight of predators spread across the Great Plains. It looked around, and scurried for shelter under Pride Rock, near the lionesses' den. _She_ couldn't have been happier.

"Ah, finally I found a place worth sleeping in." The small Red-bellied Lemur dusted a nearby pot hole free of dirt and mud with her long bushy tail. She smiled pleasantly as she quickly padded leaves onto her bed………………………………………………………………then sharpen branches, set up traps, place angry ants into several traps, and tie up cages and leaves together. For Rocio, everything had to be well secured.

"Let's see those slobbery mongrels try and chew on my tail now!" Rocio happily jumped onto her leaf bed, and placed her crossed arms under her head for a day well spent. She grabbed a mango from her large tin lunch box she had taken from a plane's cargo hold where she had left Madagascar.

"Funny, not a lot of fun without King Julien, he was one heck of a guy, curvy smile, shiny eyes, long bushy ring tail……….ahem, I should simply forget it." Rocio thought back on the lemur king she had previously known back on her home island of Madagascar. She had accidently boarded a large plane, owned by Julien, ready to leave the island because she had been one of the lemurs in charge of maintenance, ration checking, stuff like that, and was too late too leave the aircraft before take off.

Rocio now spent her days alone in the new wilderness, always careful on her actions. She had just taken a bite of her special mango, until a booming voice called out from behind.

"Aha, so you are the thief who took Rafiki's food!" A large baboon popped out from behind a boulder, holding a deadly looking stick in his hands, with two gourds tied to the tip. He had a colorful face adorned with blue and red, had distinctive bright yellow eyes, white mane, gray fur, and a long crooked tail.

Rocio gulped hard, for she knew this had to be the owner of the fruit pile she had taken from the tree tops of a baobob tree. Rocio hid the mango behind her back.

"Hey there, who are you talking to?!" Rocio said nervously, only her words came out more high-pitched than usual. The mandrill-like baboon lifted an eyebrow, followed closely by a chuckle.

"Oh I'm talking the mango behind you, who else could I possibly be referring to young one?" Rafiki, the wise shaman of the Pride Lands, asked with a smile. Rocio sighed and held her hand out, revealing the mango.

Rafiki picked up the mango from her hands, and gently put it on her leaf bed.

"Oh dear child, what on earth caused you to commit such an act?" The baboon said with his head rested on the long stick. Rocio shrugged.

"I don't know, I got used to living like this, I guess." Rocio rubbed her arm in discomfort; she really didn't expect the baboon to respond like this, she had thought he was going to whack her mercilessly until she had left the savannah.

"Hmmm, Rafiki thinks you don't live around here, as I have never before seen any animal with the likes of you." The baboon again saw Rocio shrug, and she explained everything without sounding too complex.

"Well, to tell you the truth, I don't really live here, or on this continent actually." To this Rafiki became shocked, for surely this small creature was "special" if she didn't live in Africa. Rafiki placed a finger to her nose.

"What is your name?" The shaman removed his finger, and Rocio answered her name. Rafiki rubbed his white whiskers, and simply smiled with contempt.

"It is alright, you may keep Rafiki's stash if you'd like, but you should know better than to take what is not yours, for remember that the easy way out needs a hard way in. I hope to see you tomorrow." To Rafiki's words, Rocio nodded and turned around with a grim look.

"Huh, it's the first time somebody had actually caught me, bravo Ra-fi-ki, bravo." Rocio said as she sat down on her bed, about to eat her mango again, but turned it down with a frown.

"I guess it's time to get some shut eye." Rocio laid down and yawned, only for her to be awoken abruptly by a mew. She got up quickly and grabbed a spear she had made.

"Show yourself, I'm armed and semi-trained to use said arm." Rocio's bulging eyes scanned the area, and then she saw it. It was a lion.

"Okay then, come get some!" She pointed her spear towards the silhouette and squinted to see it approach her. Instead of breaking her sanity for combat, she began to coo. Out of the darkness, came a hungry lion………………………………………………………cub.

The cub mewed again, and looked at Rocio with large eyes connected to a perfectly round head. The cub had short, maize yellow fur with brown spots covering his back, and a small black nose that reflected the sun's fading light.

Rocio relaxed and crouched down for a better look.

"Well aren't you just the cutest baby I've ever seen with my two eyes. Where did you come from?" Exactly when she finished her sentence, the cub pointed to Pride Rock up above.

"Huh, that was an obvious guess, don't you think?" Rocio looked at the cub which pounced on her feet, and began to look up at her with a smile. Rocio thought it was the cutest thing she had ever seen, but her thoughts of paranoia came back to her.

"You've got to go back home, because I don't want to be your mother's next snack, okay?" Rocio gently guided the cub towards the steps leading to the lionesses' den. The cub simply stared at her with curiosity, and walked back towards Rocio's bed, easily avoiding Rocio's traps and cages.

Rocio was not about to get caught with this cub by an angry mother. She jumped in front of her bed, and confronted the small cub who was circling the bed's top for a comfortable position. Rocio's blood shed colored eyes glared at the young cub.

"Oh no you don't, I sleep there, don't mess my leaves up because it took forever to get them like that." Rocio explained. The cub quickly put his head down.

"Me too!" The cub said with stern eyes. Rocio's anger ceased, and she stared with bewilderment.

"Wait, you can talk?" Rocio asked, only to get an answer from someone else.

"No he can't, those are the only words you'll ever hear from him." A lioness cub popped out from the steps leading to the lionesses' den, smiling with amusement that she had found her brother.

"Oh, you know him?" Rocio asked with fright in her voice. The older cub stepped out to gently stroke the small cub on Rocio's bed.

"Of course I know him, he's my little brother Mheetu." She spoke with pride. Rocio raised a finger with patience.

"And just who exactly are you scrawny bunny?" Rocio asked. She was suddenly pinned down by surprise. The older cub smiled with satisfaction.

"The names Nala."

**Chapter 4 up, I'm starting to wonder if anybody looks at the crossover sections anymore. Review if you happen to find this story and like it, or simply make a comment so I can continue writing, knowing I have readers out there. That's all for now!**


	5. The Medic and the Rescue

Chapter 5 – The Medic and the rescue

"Those flea bitten vermin are going to be dead by the time we get to them, right Leader?" Ruby asked with frantic flapping. Leader shrugged her off, and then a look of terror crossed his eyes. He had forgotten to meet with "The Medic", a good frien………..acquaintance of the vultures.

"Ruby, we have forgotten to visit The Medic, he had wanted to hold a discussion to increase food rations with our species." All of the vultures' eyes widened with fright, and then with satisfaction of the fantasy they had always dreamed of, unlimited sources of food.

With that, all six vultures flew east, towards the gloomy side of the Pride Lands.

A slithering menace was making his way towards an enormous crowd of animals, all grouchy and worried. It had been two days since they had last seen King Julien, Maurice, and Mort, when they had mysteriously disappeared from their very own party. The flamingos were the ones who were worried the most, for they were Julien's most loyal followers.

"I still remember when he allowed us to visit his volcano," One flamingo began ", three of us fell in and died, but it was still fun as heck man!" All the flamingos then began to weep uncontrollably, until Alex and Marty intervened. The duo went into the middle of the crowd.

"Aw come on guys, we don't know for sure if he's dead, plus, I can finally lay on my back for a tan without crushing Mort by accident…………..well you know, not a great plus, but everyday of the week is too much." Alex said to a sullen crowd.

"I don't think your joke worked there butt-biter." Marty said with a grin. Alex turned to him rapidly.

"That wasn't a joke; you don't want to hear an AHHHHH every time you sit, okay, Marty, so no joke." The minute Alex said this, he turned around and paused.

"AHHHHH!" Alex leapt into the air and into the thick brush of a tree. Marty looked ahead and saw the intimidating Joka standing six feet tall with his head raised.

"Is that the AHHHHH you were talking about Ale……………………oh no, are you sucking your thumb again?!" Marty called up to the tree, for there was Alex sucking his right thumb as he trembled with fear.

"Aw, come on Alex, it's just Joka, now will you get down here!" With an urge to yelp, Alex retracted his claws from the tree bark, and climbed down in a matter of seconds, petrified but sane.

"Hello there little kitty, why were you ssssso sssssssscared of little long me?" Joka smiled a menacing smile that somehow seemed reassuring at the same time. Alex waved and laughed nervously.

"Ah, who was scared, because I certainly wasn't scared, ha, ha, ha, ha….Marty back me up here." Alex nudged Marty, but the zebra simply flicked him on the nose, causing Alex to jump back.

"Don't mind him, say, have you heard about King Julien, he and his friends disappeared, and I'm worried enough about being out of business at the juice bar." Marty then felt Alex's paw on his shoulder, and turned to see an emotionless Alex.

"Marty, they pay you with rocks and grass…." All three animals stood silent for a moment.

"Anyways………….have you heard anything Joka?" Marty asked the enormous python.

"Me, sssssadly not, I am usually helping the king of partiesssss during his usual sshindigss, and I can't really be aware of him 24 hoursssss/7 dayssssss. However, I could sssserve asss a lookout for any ssign of the lemurss." Joka said with a fake smile. Marty smiled.

"That's a great idea, why don't you be our lookout, you know when its daylight, night, morning, dawn, and dusk, all day, what do you say." Marty asked. Joka's widened in happiness.

"You mean it!" Joka happily rose near the treetops. Alex became frightened at his height and ran behind Marty as he yelped.

"Well sure, when we leave for search and rescue, we'll need somebody for lookout in the reserve for hunters." Marty explained.

Joka's happiness hit a new low, for this was completely unexpected for his plans.

"Wait, what do you mean ssearch and ressscue?" Joka asked, scratching his head with his tail. Alex smiled to this.

"Ah, it's going to be the greatest mission any animal ever encountered in the history of New York and Africa. Melman, Gloria, and Marty here are going to go find King Julien………….alone…………………………….. Well, sadly I kind of made a bet on a snail race event that now forces me to tag along, so I guess I'm going too, eh." Alex faked a smile, but Marty reassured him.

"Aw come on Alex, Julien and the others, they're our friends, and part of our family, remember, as long as we're together we'll be okay, and don't say you don't remember!" Marty glared at Alex, who moaned in protest, but gave in.

"Alright, I'm in, no holdy backy, in, all the way." Alex smiled and playfully punched Marty on the shoulder.

"So you see Joka, that's where we're goi………………?" Marty and Alex saw that Joka already slithered away. The duo shrugged and headed towards the front of the crowd, where all the animals were falsely accusing one another.

"It was him, he king-napped Julien!" Kumpel the gorilla pointed at a hippo. The hippo looked quickly at Bobby the Dik Dik and accused him.

"It was Shirley, I witnessed it with my own eyes, the way he kicked poor Mort." The hippo leaned towards Bobby.

"For the last time, the name, is Bobby, you've got that punk?" After Bobby said this, all became chaos, for everyone was yelling at the nearest animal they saw.

"Oh boy, this is going to be easy to do." Alex said with sarcasm.

Joka slid through the murky tree branches and muddy swamps, for he was headed towards the Gloomy Galleon, a territory consisting of pure reptiles, rodents, and other predators. Here, Joka slid towards an enormous cavern hidden by rising tree roots. The entire swamp had an enormous quantity of cool colors ranging from blue, light blue, purple, and green being reflected all over the various, murky lakes and pools. Joka entered the cavern and hissed when he heard a growl.

"Well if it isn't the skinny basset hound Leader has been yapping about." From the shadows, an enormous Leopard tortoise revealed himself from the shadows, covered in mud and debris, and containing large amounts of scars on his shell and legs, obviously battle wounds. Joka gulped, trying to avoid his shock.

"Kobe, I'm afraid further introductionsss will have to wait, sso if you will excuse me….." Joka had his tail pinned down by the enormous torois, who stood over Joka, grinning with glee.

"Puh, do you really think you can visit The Medic at this moment?" Kobe looked at Joka with an eye that spelled mystery. Kobe was always a secluded individual, he rarely talked about the past, and how he came to be as he is now.

"Of courssse, you ssstupid fool, I have rights to warn The Medic of our situation. The mammalsss are leaving to find King Julien, and if they find him, we won't have enough time to sssspring our plansss into action." Joka eyed the tortoise with an eerie glare, but the tortoise simply smiled.

"Alright, come on in!" Kobe and Joka stepped down into the cavern, cackling as he did it. The cavern floor was flooded with swamp water, and wreaked of foul sewer. Joka found it difficult to slither through, for the water contained skeletons of rodents.

"Ssso, where is this meeting being held at?" Joka asked, only for the enormous tortoise to grab Joka, and fling him into an open area, filled with vultures. All he vultures were silent, and glared at Joka with hatred. One vulture stepped up.

"The name is Chewa, leader of the vultures, and you are invited to see The Medic with us!" Chewa said with glee. Chewa and Joka had known each other since they were hatchlings, and were taken with surprise at their greetings.

"Chewa you old maggot, how you've been, wait don't anssswer, The Medic is coming!" Right when he said that, a loud ominous boom echoed from the cavern.

"I be the Medic, and I need your help!" A small praying Mantis with goggle like eyes and small pincers leapt from the cavern opening in front of the assembled scavengers, above a small ledge.

"As you all know, you vultures come to me for help no, well I have solution, yeah!" It wasn't long before The Medic said this, when Leader, Ruby, and the three other cronies flapped themselves to a nearby seat. The Medic took his hand to his head when they began pecking at other vultures for a seat, causing inane cawing.

The Medic then sighed and clicked his fingers thrice……………………………

A grubby and rather enormous black jaguar leaped from the ceiling, and landed in the middle of the vultures, growling and snapping at them with her enormous jaw. The jaguar managed to grab three vultures in her maw softly, was suddenly furious at the rest of the birds, and soon received silence in return……….all part of the routine gone well.

The Medic scowled the jaguar for her behavior, and ordered her to behave, only for the medic to be flicked aside by a paw.

The jaguar let the vultures in his mouth go, and pawed the ground furiously, as an enormous Nile crocodile stepped from the shadows and smiled a toothy grin to the crowd of buzzards.

"Alright buzzards, if you want food to come to you instead of looking for it, then you've come to the right place." The crocodile said, almost as a whisper. The vultures became interested in the crocodile's proposition.

"Aren't you all tired of scanning the desert landscapes for a small meal, only to arrive to the nest empty handed, aren't you tired of starving yourself because meerkats and rats don't come out of hiding. One vulture named Choyo, stepped up, with a small female hatchling following.

"Yeah, because Leader, Ruby, Flapmud, and I tried to eat this lion cub, but a warthog and his rat intruded, what warthog eats cubs?" Choyo asked.

"Thanks to you slobber beak, why do I even listen to your little "wise-a………." Flapmud the vulture was then cut off by the hatchling named Violet.

"Do you know how to get food Mr. Crocodile?" The innocent hatchling asked, tilting her head.

"It's Nyonge actually, and I do in fact have the solution that will benefit you for the rest of your lives."

The Medic stepped up from behind Nyonge, and began to demonstrate the plan of migrating animals through the desert towards the reserve...........................................................with a threat of evacuation towards a small area called, The Pride Lands.

"No Biggy right!" The Medic said with glee in his spirit.

Alex, Marty, Melman, and Gloria had just announced their leaving for Julien, and were saying goodbye to their friends.

"Don't worry Dad, I'll be fine." Alex said to Zuba, his father.

"Nah, I know you will, you're my boy, you've got muscle, use it then." Zuba chuckled as Alex checked his flabby arms.

"Seriously though, I know you'll do great, but remember to stay away from those weasels, cause those dudes are crazy, if you know what I'm sayin'!" Zuba exclaimed.

"I'll do that, thanks….." Alex hugged his father and mother. The three of them smiled together, but then Alex began to gag.

"Mom, the………..crushing………..too……………………much!" Alex clasped for a breath, and his eyes were expanding from their sockets. Before long, Alex's mother let go of him and allowed Alex to take air in.

Gloria and Marty approached Alex and laughed.

"You know something, I bet we'll be back by tomorrow, I mean Julien couldn't have gone that far." All of the zoosters agreed with Gloria, and then had worry in their faces. Melman walked in from behind and smiled nervously.

"If we don't find him tonight, do we really have to keep searching _until_ we find him?" Melman asked, with silence as his answer.

"Hey, do you think Joka kidnapped him?" Marty asked the zoosters.

"Don't know, don't care, come on people, let's get this show on the road!" Alex said. Just as he said this, the gang boarded a hot-air balloon, and waved goodbye to the crowd below.

_For people who reread this, I changed Krusha the crocodile's name into Nyonge (which means vile), and this name is permanent for this specific villain. I apologize if you become confused later in the story, and I'll try to bring the full lists of the villains' names onto my profile._

_Thanks for reading!!_


	6. Who the Heck are You!

Chapter 6 – "Who the Heck are you!!?"

The desert landscape was far too much to be taken in by the group below. The sun was high over the sky, and consumed everything with rapidly rising temperatures. Things looked bleak for any life on the desert, by life we mean……………………………………

"Maurice, I can't take it anymore," Julien the ring tailed lemur said with anxiety," the sun is springing hatred onto my body, and the sandy ground is _devouring_ my kingly feet, it is painful!"

"I'll help your feet King Julien!" An exhausted Mort crawled towards the king lemur's feet, but Mort painfully collapsed from exhaustion halfway. Julien scowled Maurice for this.

"You see Maurice, not even Mort can touch my feet, and I miss having to shout at him to not do it!" King Julien began to have a brief nervous breakdown next to the tired Aye-aye, only to be stopped by Ni.

"Come on guys, I'm sure we'll reach some sort of land soon, I'm sure of it." Ni said with a paw over the near insane king. Maurice looked everywhere to prove Ni right, but all he saw was an excess amount of evidence to prove Ni wrong, nothing but desert landscape.

"Ni, I know you're cool with being with us, but if you want, you can just eat us now, that way we can both benefit from each other." Maurice said with a grin. Julien quickly agreed with Maurice.

"Yes, you can eat me first though because I'm the king, and you know royalty goes first, only that would not make much difference because then you'll eat Maurice and Mort seconds after _me_. However, that is ironic because _I_, royalty, gets eaten first which is actually meant for me to be eaten lastly, only I wish to be eaten first to end the burning of my precious feet and fur. I think you should chew each one of us, taking turns with different body parts, and if you'd like, a little microwaving ought to bring out the crispiness of my gloriously seasoned steak shaped body. For Mort and Maurice, you can just add all the cacti you want because they taste like burnt cauliflower compared to my perfectly, citrus marinated, tangy and juicy exquisite flavor. I can see that you want to eat me because the look on your eyes is so demeanin……………………………………………………………….." Julien was cut off by an annoyed Maurice.

"Enough your majesty, no one will be eaten, I only meant it as a joke!" Maurice exclaimed to the now furious Julien.

"What, how dare you cancel my appointment of suicidal action, it could work you know." King Julien said with his back turned to Maurice while walking, but in an instant tripped onto the sandy desert.

Julien was about to give up all the hope he had, until a strange scent overcame his nose. Julien instantly stood up, for the scent was foreign, yet so familiar. Julien sniffed the air as he walked, and looked puzzled for a moment, until his eyes widened with delight.

"What is it Julien, land, oh please make it land!" Maurice exclaimed. Ni looked down upon Julien, who at last smiled.

"Ha, ha, ha I smell fresh, nourishing senses that are all around my beautiful nose, I am taking up fresh scents of business, and digging, and water!" Right after he said this, King Julien leapt forward, leaving Ni, Maurice, and Mort behind.

"Your majesty," Maurice began ", come on Ni, we've got to catch up with King Julien, before he gets into trouble!"

Ni looked up ahead as Maurice chased after Julien. He thought about staying behind and looking out for the vultures, but he felt a jolt that ran up into his spine.

"Mush horsie, weeeeeee!" Mort pulled on Ni's mane, causing him to inadvertently chase after the lemurs. Ni ran straight towards Julien's direction, a different terrain all together.

"Ow, this ground feels too different to be the sandy dunes we've been passing the last few days." Ni looked at the ground, and saw with fascination that the sand disappeared into oblivion, leaving behind rocky floors decorated with the various patterns of cracks. Mort leapt off of Ni, and attempted to walk on the floor. Unfortunately for the mouse lemur, Mort once again tripped into a wide open crack, and became stuck, once more.

While Ni stopped to aid the mouse lemur to freedom, Julien was ecstatic over the area he had located with his nose's accurate sense of smell.

"You see Maurice, I knew you were wrong, ha, ha, ha, I did it, yay, I found us a _solution_ to our not-to-be-eaten plan of the past and before!" Julien stopped running and took in the air of the landscape, for it was now evident that they had come out of the desert. Vegetation was visible in the distance, such as a wide variety of yellow grass, a couple of trees, and tunnels, various tunnels, many tunnels.

Julien was stepping back once he noticed the tunnels, and was stunned to see a head pop up from one of them.

It was a meerkat, possibly quite aged, for his fur's colors were fading from its natural tone. The meerkat stretched, and sighed with satisfaction at the terrain.

"Excellent, not a clear sign of decay in any of the tunnels," The meerkat began", Ever since Timon left the colony, we've all been on schedule and in top shape and.......AHHHHHHH!"

The meerkat spotted Julien and the others just a few feet away, and fled back inside the tunnel.

Maurice and Julien exchanged confused expressions, and Julien decided to dust himself off, and approach the tunnel.

There, Julien leaned over the tunnel, and stuck his head inside.

"Hello, anybody home," Julien called out into the dark underground with no response", It is I, the royal and gloriously handsome King Julien, hello!"

Suddenly, Julien heard a "heehaw!", and was seeing stars the next moment.

Julien pulled his head from out of the tunnel, and saw Maurice snap his fingers to snap him out of his dazed state. Julien held his head still with both hands, and scratched his head.

"Maurice, did you hear that?" Julien asked his second in command. Maurice nodded his head vigorously for agreement.

"It's obvious someone lives down here, so why don't we try speaking with them?" Maurice explained.

"Oh, I likey, excellent plan Maurice, glad I thought of it." To this, Maurice rolled his eyes with a smile.

"Uh, excuse me, fellow earth creatures or creature, we are surface dwellers from the fifth dimension, and unless you don't come out, I will have to use my intellectual powers of mind-control and peril, for me and my friends are from the fifth dimension as mentioned earlier in my threatening but yet friendly suggestion/demand, and nobody else knows about it but me and they, okay under-surface dweller?" Once Julien shut his trap up, the ground was silent for a moment, until voices were heard from underneath the ground.

"You go up there?"

"You don't know what those things do!"

"Well I'm just going to poke up for a teensy minute."

"But things from the surface eat us; you don't know how they devour animals like us."

"Oh Uncle Max, relax, I promise I'll return at the first sign of trouble okay."

"Fine, I'll be eating termites from here as if it were a horror flick."

"Only this time, I will survive."

Julien and Maurice were scratching heads and rear ends while the dispute rang out, and began to get impatient. The lemurs were just about to call it an attempt, when the dirt rustled beneath them. A lone female meerkat poked up from under the tunnel, and looked up at the two lemurs.

"Oh, hello," She said with a nervous chuckle", just to be sure, are you two carnivores?"

"Well I do occasionally enjoy the tenderness of a rotisserie Madagascar beetle, but that might just be it, oh, and sushi too, and shrimp, and maybe just a little shrew with tamarind sauce, okay now I'm done. Greetings fellow sister of the dimensional cause, we are worn out travelers searching for a nearby water source. Do you happen to know anything about that?" Julien said, with the meerkat nodding.

"Why sure hon, the nearest watering hole is a couple of miles away, towards the Pride Lands." To this, Ni smiled.

"Well, I guess you finally got the memo Julien. Oh, by the way, I want you to tap dance; I need you to tap dance really hard." Ni said with a smirk. Julien sighed and cracked his fingers.

"Prepare to be amazed!" Julien danced the floor away, making the floor crumble underneath of him. Julien screamed as he fell down a landslide, which dragged him far into a field of grass, and the most important of all…………………………_water_.

"Well what do you know, macho dancer does have the tendency to get into trouble," The meerkat said", Oh, I'm sorry, my name is Ma, well that's how everybody knows me around here."

"Nice to meet you Ma, but we've just found H2O, also known as water, and wish to drink from it, how about a sip, can we?" Ni said with an eye on Ma. She nodded, but still looked puzzled at what he said.

All of the animals dove into the water, and were delighted at the refreshing of the newly made lake, made free by Julien breaking a small dam off of the hillside, which contained large amounts of grass. Ni looked into the horizon, and saw Pride Rock. Ni really felt safe, and patted the lemurs on the back, as the four friends cherished their journey's end.

"Let's thank Julien, for leading us to victory!" Ni lifted Julien, Maurice up onto his back, and slid down into the water, which was a stream connected to a larger lake. Maurice and Mort flipped off of Ni, and saw Ma, and another meerkat make their way down.

"Hey guys, this is Uncle Max, and he has been searching for the water source here for days, looks like a dam was built underground. How'd you find it?" Ma asked, with the meerkat next to her, Uncle Max, grimaced at the sight of the misfit gang.

"Well I felt the water's pressure, you see I've been trained to sense my surroundings by friends back home, yeah, swell times back then," Ni then had an idea ", hey, could you perhaps, you know, introduce us to the Pride Lands, I've come to find a pride after, several occurrences, me, Julien, Mort, and Maurice would like a place to stay for the night."

It was true, the night was arriving rapidly, and most of the scavenger jackals began to come out of their homes for the hunt.

"Why sure hon, I know a cave somewhere out in the fields, there we can tell you all there is to know, but don't listen to anything baboons and mandrills say around here, those animals are terrible at giving things straight, they sure do like their metaphors, and that's how they got my poor Timmy." Once Ma said this, the lemurs looked scared, and planned to leave right away.

"Baboons?"

"Mandrills?"

"Metaphors?"

"Timmy?"

"Who the heck are you, you crazy burrow loving things you!" Julien blurted out, which made Uncle Max next to her laugh.

"Ha, she thinks you're crazy, looks like I'm not the only one," Ma glared at Uncle Max for his comment, and Max took Julien by the back", primate, you've got a lot to learn here, it's a good think no one else knows you're here or you would have been seriously embarrassed."

As the meerkats guided their guests to the cave, a sinister, manic spy was stalking in the shadows.

"But I do, ha, you may be royalty, but you're not the bright one of the gang." Crumble, a silver Savannah monitor, chuckled as he made his way towards the gang.

Crumble was a bit mad, for he had spent a long time being sold off to cruel human owners, who tapped on his glass on a daily basis, causing him to be traumatized with the inane _tap, tap, clank, clunk_ of the glass boxes he was kept in. I had been Joka, who killed his last owner with a mortal bite wound that set several reptiles, including himself, free from a reptile house in an isolated community.

Crumble had been so grateful because of that incident, that he pledged his membership to a group of rebellious reptiles.

Now, after a lot of discrimination on the cold blooded animals directly from mammals in particular, Crumble was about to make his brethren's vision of freedom a reality.

"I'll show Nyonge, I'll show (_twitch_) everyone just who (twitch) Crumble is." The Savannah monitor made his way to a rock that contained what the humans called a walkie-talkie.

Crumble turned the device in, and spoke into it.

"Yello, Medic, I think I've got my (_twitch_) eye on that guy you've been talking about, you know the lemur that's out on the run." Crumble suddenly became frightened as a nervous shrew as The Medic's voice boomed through the walkie-talkie.

"You will bring me the fugitive, and report once you be outside the door of Gloomy Galleon, 'kay!" The Medic roared.

"_Whoa,_ calm down, I'm undercover you know, you'll ruin a (_twitch_) perfect stealth (_twitch_) montage I've got goin' on here." Before The Medic could react to this, Crumble shut the device up, and strapped it on his back with an old belt, the same belt that belonged to his last owner, as a reminder of his hatred for human beings and mammals alike.

Crumble headed to the cave, and took a peek inside, smiling as he did it.

**Here's Chapter 6, thanks for cheering me on TheUndersigned. I'll continue the story, and I'll continue to add more. Enjoy, and try to review.**


	7. Wierd and evil things in progress

Chapter 7 – Weird and evil things in progress

It was beginning to turn to dusk, and the mice living in the fields began to scurry to their families. The rodents and herds in the savannah had started to flee as an enormous white Kenworth T904 truck sped through the area. The people inside had just captured a dangerous specimen of panther, which was raiding several communities for a whole year. The driver and his two friends were taking the animal to a reserve far away from the Public eye, for safety reasons. Little did the humans know, they would never reach their destination.......

The T904 stopped in its tracks, and the three humans inside stepped outside from the front, in order to refuel their vehicle. Unfortunately, their actions were being monitored by a watchful predator.

Giza, the black leopard guard from the vulture meeting, had now leaded his four reptile allies to their leader's resting place. The Medic monitored his stealthy agent from his back, for he wanted to free his commander from captivity as well.

"Remember Giza, simply place me, the _mantis_, near the human transport, and stand back. This all depends on critical timing, and you know it." The Medic hissed at the stealthy leopard, with the other four reptiles watching the two from a safe distance.

Giza held his maw shut, because The Medic had decided to stay inside his mouth for easier maneuver. Sadly, The Medic regretted it, and held his pincer to his eyes from the overwhelming smell of Giza's breath.

The Medic was let free to go towards the vehicle, however he was drenched in revolting drool. He turned to Giza the leopard, and glared at him.

"Stupid leopard," The Medic screeched at the silent hunter," next time brush your teeth or something to kill foul breath, eh?"

Giza _was_ able to talk, but he preferred silence as an element of fear, and thought talking was useless for being intimidating.

The small preying mantis climbed onto the truck's enormous trailer, which held the leopard Rogelio responsible for the terrorized communities. Now, he shall be set free.

The Medic put on some oversized human glasses for a better view of the trailer's door, and easily saw the bolts clamping the enormous door. The Medic clicked his fingers for assistance, all while he chuckled at the vision of success.

Bomoa, Katara, Kinamisa, and Rakibu made their way towards the truck, where The Medic laughed with glee.

Bomoa was a white desert monitor with blue eyes who despised his enemies greatly, only he never had the chance to encounter them, for he hated to fight, but loved to spy.

Katara on the other hand, was a dull green, slender-snouted crocodile who loved to gain the spotlight, and help out his reptile comrades without a trace of suffering, and he also seemed to think of himself as the superior authority figure of the group.

Kinamisa was a lengthy black Mamba, who served as the executioner of the group, who killed enemies quickly for the reptiles. Kinamisa was very fatalistic because of his work, and didn't care much about his life for he believed everyone in the world was doomed to die eventually, and everything anybody does is pointless.

The last member of the group named Rakibu, a red Nile monitor, loved speed and conflict, and was a daredevil who was afraid of peace and silence.

These reptiles formed a group of scouts who, by free will, decided to work in allegiance with Cherehe, an endangered Gharial, who thought certain mammals caused great harm to their race.

The reptilian cronies aided The Medic on removing the bolts from the backdoor of the trailer, and were successful. Without luck, the humans made their way to the back, where The Medic decided to act.

"Capture the humans, bound them to their bones!" The tiny praying mantis shouted, with Katara and Rakibu responding with an aggressive temper. The two reptiles immediately slipped underneath the truck, and aimed their view towards the feet of their human targets.

The three humans were suddenly frightened; the eerie silence was too ominous, even for the savannah.

One of the humans decided to check the back of the truck, but the others were reluctant. The results of this would not matter, for the Nile Monitor Rakibu stood right next the door, waiting for a chance.

The human gasped for a breath, and looked over, towards the door........

Nothing was visible, all except a long and slender tail slithering slowly under the truck's trailer. The human, as curious as he was, checked underneath the trailer for a better look. This was a bad move......................

Katara and Rakibu leapt onto his face, and began to scratch at him.

The human fell backwards from fright, and accidently knocked himself unconscious via a rock.

Giva the black leopard leapt onto the truck, dropped down and bonked the other two humans' heads together, and slashed the bolts which The Medic was trying to unscrew off with his tiny pincers.

Once the humans were taken out by the reptiles, Giva and The Medic stared inside the trailer with awe as the animal inside the truck growled anxiously.

The Medic scurried over to it's cage, and used the keys he pick pocketed from the human driver to release the black leopard from his prison.

The moment the cage was open, The Medic was flown away by an unseen force.

"Whoa, strong wind we are having!" The Medic proclaimed as he was swept outside the trailer. The spotted _shadow_ had been released.

"Free..........at........last." It said with satisfaction.

The reptiles looked shocked to see the black leopard leap out of it's cage, and vanish into the savannah.

They shrugged any thoughts off, and decided to take the humans into their cavern underneath the ground, just as soon as The Medic dug out a clear opening.

The Medic tapped the savannah a bit, just enough to help them into their underground Aardvark burrow lair.

"Come on lizards and snakes, we've much to do!" The Medic cried out to his helpers, who carried the humans on their backs, as best as they could anyway.

Twenty minutes later………

Raphael, the human who had checked the door, opened his eyes, and immediately stumbled back. A wildebeest skull lay in front of him, and Raphael saw his two friends tied together with branches near a corner. They looked unconscious, and Raphael assumed he had been knocked out first.

Raphael was stunned to see a Gharial crocodile lurch over to him.

"A Gharial, I thought those things were extinct." Once he said this, the Gharial spoke to him.

"Oh, now it is your turn for extinction, human Raphael, based on name identification tag." Even though Raphael could not understand him, it was clear on what was going to happen.

Raphael saw his friends squirm, and suddenly The Medic and Kinamisa the executioner Mamba stepped into the cave where Raphael was being held. Kinamisa slithered to the point where he was face to face with the two humans, and opened his maw.

"Kill the little fools, Kinamisa!" The Medic smiled as Kinamisa lunged with his venomous fangs towards the human prisoners, and Raphael closed his eyes with terror. 'Snap', 'Snap' the fangs of Kinamisa went.

The terror grew as a large black leopard Giva leapt onto Raphael.

"I guess he's useless as well." Cherehe said with an emotionless dialect. Raphael was released back to the savannah by the opening he was _previously_ pushed through, tied to the truck he was _previously_ in, and The Medic laughed as he pressed the gas pedal with a stone, _previously_ before Raphael had a chance to yelp.

"Let's see if anyone picks you up along way, yes?!" The Medic watched the truck go on into the distance while the leopard Giza took him back down via his back.

The sullen _cat_ was headed towards Cherehe, and it stood by him.

"Rogelio, what do I receive for your rescue?" Cherehe asked with a smirk. Rogelio, the leapord that was freed from captivity, smiled and made a small nod of reassurance.

"Let me check, I serve you." Rogelio said. Cherehe nodded, and then added.

"You don't quite as serve me, as learn from me." Cherehe told the leopard with a sneer.

"You say that like it's a difficult thing, so how have you been Cherehe?" Rogelio saw the Gharial approach him.

"Well Dr. Blowhole, the technological fanatic dolphin, was going to help me finish my conquest, but he was ambushed by a mysterious group of flightless birds." Cherehe said as Joanna, a goanna from Central Park, crawled over and advised her leaders of the vulture's mishaps.

"I suppose, my disciple, we will talk about the small lemur Julien later on, but for now, we must control our flock of friends." Cherehe proclaimed in an abrupt fashion.

"Technology sure is a beautiful thing isn't it Cherehe?" Rogelio said with awe at the truck's roar, which rumbled the underground cave they were currently in, and slowly died out in the distance.

The two predators followed Joanna to the second Aardvark made cave, while Kinamisa "took care" of his "two pieces of art".

Aardvarks had once dug at a strenous pace to make the biggest burrow their species could possibly make, and it ended up being a cave, two caves as a matter of fact. The aardvarks, however, mysteriously dissappeared, and by chance, the reptiles made it their lair, because it was connected to The Gloomy Galleon, territory of reptiles, insects, and rodents. Most mammals reffered to these animals as low classed or uncivilized, but that opinion was soon to change, because Cherehe had a plan to change the lives of his brethren.

The vultures were busy trying to learn more about the reptiles' plan to migrate the animals out of the Pride Lands, feed them to the vultures, and move in as soon as the alpha lion is killed.

"Well, I'm a little concerned on what you are going to do without animals to feast on for yourself, Bomoa." Choyo, the "Leader", pointed out.

"Yeah, what Leader said." Flapmud, his comrade, told him.

"I told you not to call me Leader, Choyo is just fine." Choyo barked. Bomoa smirked at their discussion.

"We'll simply have to eat you then, no I'm just kidding, we'll invite the smaller mammals to stay in our territory, because it will only be the large ones that you'll be eating Choyo." Bomoa said.

"Well said, I'm in, when do we start, I'm starving, starving!" Flapmud yelped out loud. Giza the leapord loomed over Flapmud once he had said this, while he showed off his enormous rows of dagger-like teeth with The Medic following from close behind.

"Well, I guess you start once alpha lion of pride go kaput, how 'bout that?" The Medic gazed at Flapmud and the other vultures, who agreed eagerly. Choyo held his head high, and agreed.

"We'll be waiting then." Choyo said at last.

"Good, because I'd hate to kill a good bird like you." Kinamisa said, with his coils crossed behind a nearby rock. Kinamisa smiled and chuckled at Choyo, who stared awkwardly back at him.

"Yeah sure, we would totally miss you eh, you're the brightest of all flying scum." Right when Bomoa the desert monitor said this, Kinamisa slapped him on his shoulder and laughed with him. Kinamisa soon stopped laughing however, because he thought it was pointless to joke around.

"Our duty is to the birds Bomoa, you know that." Kinamisa slithered away, but was halted by the vulture Flapmud.

"You know, I can see your sarcasm dirt boy!" Flapmud replied with angry hops and flapping, all directed towards Kinamisa the bright red mamba.

As Bomoa, Kinamisa, Flapmud, and Choyo quarreled together, Giza became sullen as Cherehe and Rogelio walked towards them. Rogelio had a serious expression on his face as he headed towards the group.

From a corner, Joka the purple python, who had been waiting for The Medic's return, slithered towards Rogelio. He was relieved to see Rogelio the leopard alive, but instantly recalled the horrible mistake he had commited with him in the past.

"Rogelio, I am _sssssso_ thrilled to hear of your ressscue!" Joka bowed his head before Rogelio, only to have the leapord pick his head up with one of his claws.

"I am glad to see you too Joka, only _somebody_ left me to the humans before I had a chance to leave Zuba's domain!" Joka gulped as Rogelio remembered this, and hastily brought up an excuse for his past mistake.

"Rogelio I had to leave, so that I could watch over your team of cold-blooded scouts, well, I mean after all Cherehe had done for us, somebody had to be in charge, right?" Joka said in a hushed whisper. Rogelio snarled at the serpent.

"Silence fool, haven't you learned, I'm the only one this team will always cherish as their commander." Rogelio flicked the python on the nose, and continued to head towards Bomoa and the others.

"Right, I'll try to remember that, after all, snakes are the ones with greatest memory, I think, oh I forget." Joka said with a nervous chuckle. Rogelio ignored him and pounced on a boulder to stand upon.

"Well, somebody can certainly hold a grudge." Joka muttered under his breath as he fled from view.

"My teacher Cherehe has located the alpha male of the pride, and we will soon have more information as soon as King Julien the lemur is located as well." Rogelio explained with his head laid low, and a visible glare on his face. Choyo was impatient to this.

"Well, who is it?" Choyo asked, with Bomoa

"We only have a name, Scar." Rogelio growled in his coarse and raspy speech pattern.

Everyone began to share their knowledge on King Scar before the Gharial, Cherehe and Leapord, Rogelio, because they had heard many tales of the shady lion before.

"That work of bones?" One vulture said.

"The one with the creepy gash over his left eye?" Rakibu the Nile monitor called out, obviously perplexed at the sudden mention of their enemy's name.

"No, I think it was his right eye, I can guess." Bomoa replied.

As the cave filled in with more rambling, Rogelio decided to brighten up the mood.

"Yes, Scar is the name, and Kobe, our leapord tortoise spy out there, has also warned us of hyenas crawling throughout the area." Rogelio said.

"Hyenas, don't worry, how many?" Bomoa asked.

"About one hundred, maybe two." Rogelio responded. Everyone gasped, and became silent. The Medic crawled up onto Rogelio's shoulder.

"We must have somebody guide the hyenas away from Pride Lands, then cave them into a gorge, that way, no escape, how 'bout that!" The Medic looked around the cave room to see no show of hands, but one reptile, Katara the Slender-snouted crocodile eager to get attention, decided to go for it.

"I'll take care of them, I promise you that!" Katara called out. Everyone stared at Katara, who came climbing up towards The Medic.

"However, I'll only set things into action if Julien is captured by Crumble, because then we'll all be a bit more focused on the mission, am I right." Katara said with a smile as everyone openly agreed.

"Deal, I notify Savannah monitor Crumble on your suggestion, but first, we have some fragile work to do!" The Medic snapped his fingers for Giza to come forth.

"How many of you know a pinguini by name of Skipper?" The Medic asked. Everyone stood silent, and one vulture even coughed awkwardly.

"Well, Skipper is one of our enemies, and Dr. Blowhole, wierd dolphin, has asked us the favor to capture him, by shooting down his plane" The Medic said with a wicked grin.

"What will we use for the takedown?" Rakibu asked. The Medic smiled to this.

"Why fruit of course!" The Medic implied casually.

**Meanwhile**

"So this is your place huh?" Rocio asked the lion cub as she stepped into a den, filled with lionesses.

"Yeah, not much, but my pride doesn't really care, we just use it for the night." Nala guided the Red-Bellied lemur to a small secluded area, a place she really didn't want to go.

"Don't worry, this is where my friend Kula keeps her stashes of food, and it's always empty." Nala kicked the stones out of the way, and Rocio peeked in.

Hollow, empty, secluded came to mind as Rocio stepped inside, and she became even more nervous as a beetle crawled out of the hole. Nala stepped back, and laughed.

"Well I guess not totally empty, why you won't stay here for awhile I'll understand, but that's all I have to offer if you need to find a home." Nala shrugged and headed to bed, but Rocio stopped her.

"Are you sure nobody can hear?" Rocio asked the cub. Nala nodded and rolled her eyes as she left.

"She's sort of weird, isn't she Mheetu?" Nala asked her brother, who smiled as he walked alongside her.

Once they were gone, Rocio sped inside the hollow cavern, and activated a device on her ear.

"Hello Skipper, are you there?" Rocio asked. The result was pure electricity, until……………………

"Rocio is that you," A voice called out," I forgot all about our Bluetooths!"

"Never mind that, where are you?" Rocio asked in haste.

"We're heading towards Monte Carlo, why?" Skipper asked.

"I was just wondering if you could make a quick stop." Rocio said.

"What, but why!?" Skipper asked with agony.

"Well, because I'm stuck in some place called the Pride Lands, and I think Rogelio has been released." Rocio said with a nervous tone.

"Oh no, not Rogelio, he stole my caramel fudgie!" A different voice called out from the Bluetooth device, and was quickly drowned out by Skipper the penguin's voice.

"Yeah Private, Rogelio is a bad cat, he's the reason lions and tigers were portrayed as savage beasts in the early human made cartoons!" Skipper exclaimed with worry.

"Yeah well, I was wondering if you could pick me up, and like soon so I can tell you where _they're_ hiding." Rocio waited for a response, but the voice on the otherside did not respond.

"Um, Skipper?" Rocio said with worry.

"Mayday, we've been hit men, evasive manuevers, use parachutes now!" Skipper called out, as an airplane's damaged motors were heard in the background.

"They got you didn't they." Rocio said with a hand over her eyes.

"Affirmative, they used melons, just as I suspected Kowalski." Skipper replied back in a pity voice. The Bluetooth went dead in Rocio's hand before anything else could be said.

**Chapter 7 up, and I'm satisfied with how it turned out. **

**If you are curious on what my OC characters' names mean, here is a list of the names' meanings in Swahili. You can correct me if I'm mistaken if you'd like:**

_Giza - Darkness_

_Bomoa - __Break down_

_Katara - Old vehicle or Motor bus_

_Kinamisa - Deadly silence_

_Rakibu - Good rider_

_Cherehe - Grindstone or Sharpener_

**Here are the names of the OC villains, and I hope you readers like them. **

**Please remember to review for comments, or just a heads up on anything in the story I can add, change, or takeaway.**

**I'll try to start on Chapter 8 soon, but just a heads up, don't expect it to be put in soon, as school work might delay this.**

**Other than that, I'll try to update ASAP. Thanks for reading.**


	8. Royal introductions

Chapter 8 – Royal introductions

Uncle Max, the meerkat, was snoring peacefully under the tunnels he adored so much. He always dreamt the same dream, digging some more.

"Digga' tunna', dig a big tunna', when you're done, you dig a bigger tunna', dig a tunna' dig, dig, dig……….." Uncle Max suddenly felt hot steam protruding onto his face. It was hot, too hot, and smelled of melted vegetation of grueling onions and cacti.

"Hello, rise and shining Mr. Maxxy, you little thing you, for I, King Julien has awoken! King Julien proclaimed with his hands shaking poor Uncle Max out of his sleep. Uncle Max screamed in shock and leapt straight awake.

"I'm Reporting for duty here today!" Uncle Max proclaimed, with his hand saluting thin air. He looked around the areas, and saw an enormous hole over him, having the face of a confused Julien.

"What the heck are you talking about silly meerkat, can you not see that the army is nowhere in sight, ha, ha!" King Julien poked through the hole, and made it even wider, letting the entire sun into the dark tunnel ways.

"The light, it's too bright, my eyes!" Two meerkats who have been picking rocks for tunnel construction were now being blinded by the midday sun's powerful rays. The meerkats ran frightened by the hole in the ceiling, and went to tell other meerkats nearby.

"There are more of you, why did you not tell me silly Max?" Julien's head was now deep into the ground, and Max shoved him back out. Furious, Max stepped outside and began his lecture.

"Look marsupial, we meerkats need the dark, can you not see that we are vulnerable, and can be picked out by hyenas at any corner," Max continued to ramble on ," these tunnels weren't meant for openings like the one you've just created!"

"Oh it's primate actually, and cool down Max, the king just wanted to say hello, right Julien?" Maurice, the Aye-aye said with his hands held out towards King Julien.

"That is precisely right Maurice, um, where did Ni go?" Julien asked. Maurice shrugged; he had his hands to his chin for thought.

"Is Ni that scruffy lion who came with you two trouble makers?" Uncle Max asked the lemurs, who both nodded.

"I think he said something about going to meet the pride of lions living here, man can you believe he took the little one too?" Uncle Max chuckled to himself, only for Julien to hold out a hand to shut him up.

"Wait Max, there other lions here?" Julien asked his advisor.

"Yep, there sure are." Maurice said.

"And Mort is out there with Ni?" Julien asked, yet again.

"So I've heard." Maurice responded.

"Yay, victory Maurice, we have found help to get back home!" Julien danced with large steps onto the ground, and lifted his head to feel the sun.

"I think you two shouldn't go with your friend, there are a lot of hyenas ever since then new king, Scar, placed new laws." To Uncle Max's warning, Julien became even happier.

"Scar is here too, oh how much luck could I get?!" Julien cheered to Maurice, who now had a smile on his face, remembering the vultures' rambling on about Scar, the new king of the pride lands, who also had the power to help them back home.

"If you want to go talk to him, you better watch out your majesty, because lions are carnivores, and they sure would find lemurs exotic in taste!" Maurice said with fright at images of dead lemurs hanging from branches, ready to be swallowed up by hungry predators.

"Yes, let us go!" King Julien proclaimed, hoping Max would follow, but Max simply was pushed aside by Ma, the meerkat they have seen since yesterday. She came forward with worry in her eyes.

"Hey, you can't just go out there so fast honey; you need to wait for your friend because he is the only one who actually is qualified as an expert to navigate through the savannah, oh what am I saying, it's just too dangerous." Ma said in protest against the lemurs' hast decision. Maurice, however, knew he had to give her reason to prove her wrong.

"But our friend Mort is out there, and he isn't very house broken, he needs our help, right Julien?" To Maurice's protest, Julien nervously flayed around.

"Why yes Maurice, of course we have to go look for our good friend Mort, and that is the only reason, I Julien, decided to go into the predatory infested environment, filled with hate and danger, and evil, and; are we going or not?" Julien crossed his arms and looked down onto Maurice. Maurice looked at Ma, and sighed.

"Will you excuse us Ma, we're going to go make sure our friend is safe, toodle-oo!" Maurice and Julien sprinted towards the grasslands, where dozens of herbivores lay grazing in the grass. Zebras were chatting away, and the giraffes were boasting about their necks.

"I really hope they find what they are looking for." Ma said with sadness, remembering her son, Timon the meerkat.

"Yeah me too, it's not everyday someone visits us in this secluded wasteland we call home." Uncle Max said to the distressed Ma. Uncle Max was about to climb inside his tunnel, until he saw the saddened expression on Ma.

"Ah don't worry about Timon, I'm very certain he found that dream home of his he always wanted." Uncle Max insisted.

"Yeah I know, it's just that his spirit reminds me so much of Timmy." Ma said with a heavy sigh, remembering her son after he had left the colony.

**Soon…….**

Julien and Maurice kept running towards the enormous pointed rock, where Chewa the vulture had described the rock as the home of the lion king and his pride. King Julien was almost going to go downhill, until an exceedingly large stick whacked him on the face.

"Ow, that hurt the royal nose, which one dares to whack me on that which smells my surroundings!" Just as Julien finished his angry remark, a baboon fell from the nearby Acacia tree, chuckling warmly to the two lemurs.

"Oh, someone truly values the abilities of scent, I see." The baboon-mandrill hybrid primate crouched down to take a good look at the two lemurs, and smiled.

"Why, I've seen your type here, oh yes, as a matter of fact one passed by last night." The baboon-mandrill said with curiosity at the situation. Maurice's mouth dropped at the mention of another lemur, because all the lemurs had been left behind in Madagascar, unless…….

"Um, Mr. Primate, was this other type small and brown, with eyes that strike anyone as downright adorable?" Maurice asked the mysterious primate.

"It's Rafiki, and no, she was not small and brown with eyes that strike anybody downright adorable." Rafiki replied amusingly. Julien and Maurice stared at each other in shock.

"_**She**_?!" Julien and Maurice exclaimed at the same time, both very shocked and stunned. Rafiki sighed and leapt in front of them.

"Yes, a red, feisty one she was, I'm sure she knows you tall one because she mentions you quite often, that Rocio." Rafiki smiled at the mention of Rocio's name, suspecting the lemurs were traveling with her……………..how wrong he was.

"How many lemurs did Mort invite over here, why can't we just stay here in peace?!" Julien asked with dilated pupils. Rafiki's smile was suddenly wiped from his face.

"Well, if you are migrating here, I'm afraid things are not looking good for these lands, they are slowly falling apart, and I sense a dark future if you choose to stay here." Rafiki explained, with no look of hope in his face. The lemurs looked disappointed, but now were puzzled at all that as happening in an instant.

"So, there's no hope for Ni, wow, I can't stand to watch him look for a home again, it'd be too painful to watch, and in his condition I don't think he'd make it." Maurice explained sadly, with Julien's eyes growing moist with pity.

"Wow Maurice, that was touching, quickly, we must find Ni, before it's too late and the king has his fur made into a blanket which nobody wants to buy, and I think every blanket I see must be bought, so it I unfair for the king in that case, how sad, poor blankets," Julien said with a semi heavy heart ", Rafiki is it, I need you to help us poor travelers find this so called Rocio, and lead us to Ni, so we can stop him from making a big mistake of taking on their leader, and the………………..hyenas, boy what little wienies they must be huh, no bigger than a foosa I bet."

"Well if help is what you seek, Rafiki thinks he can help you find your friend," The wise shaman began," may Rafiki recommend you go to Pride Rock, I'm sure Rocio, and some of her new friends can introduce you to the solution of your mishap you have stumbled upon young one."

"So, we go to the big pointy rock, and that's where we'll find this other lemur, sounds simple right Julien?" Maurice turned to see Julien, and he nodded once he saw Maurice was talking to him and not Rafiki.

"But beware, the hyenas aren't exactly the so called _wienies_ you believe them to be, no, they are very dangerous nocturnal hunters, so may I recommend you go now while you have the chance, because Rafiki knows hyenas sleep during the day." Rafiki patted a red mark from one of the fruit gourds on his stick on Julien's shoulder, making the ring-tailed lemur very surprised, but Rafiki shushed him.

"Tell them, the baboon sent you, he, he, he…." Rafiki immediately retreated back up into his tree, where the lemurs stood perplexed.

"Well, I guess if we're going to find Mort and Ni we've better get our booties to Pride Rock, or our booties are on the menu, you with me your majesty?" Maurice turned to see Julien look away at first, but he turned to see Maurice, and smile.

"Okay Maurice, we must put our petty differentiations aside, and cast off towards the rock of pride, and whoa; I can already feel my modesty beginning to drip away the closer we get, huh Maurice?" Julien smiled and skipped towards the large rock, where two strange animals were perched on top.

"Is that…………………..?"

**Elsewhere……………**

Nala charged after the stranger who had just saved her from a vicious hyena. The scruffy lion however, was kicking too much dirt and too many rocks as he ran, that Nala was blinded by the debris, and fell behind, with the hyena back in the grass saw Nala left alone, and charged back towards her. Ni looked back, and saw Nala petrified between him and the hyena. He leapt towards the villainous hunter, and kicked it straight in the stomach, leaving it to jump back in surprise, and gasp for wind.

"Hurry, that hyena will be getting back up soon, get up into the tree over there!" Ni said to Nala, who picked herself up, and climbed the nearby acacia tree, with Ni following her.

Ni pounced onto a nearby branch, Nala following, and scanned the area for the hyena that was chasing them.

Nothing, not even the crickets were chirping.

'So it's too quiet then', Ni thought to himself. He decided the worst was over, and was about to lay back on the branch, only for the hyena, Meka, to chomp onto the branch where Ni was perched, flaying Nala back to the ground.

Ni tried to keep balance, but Meka continued to chew on the branch. Nala knew she needed to help, so she looked for a way to take care of the hyena.

By luck, she spotted another branch behind Meka, and decided to use it for her advantage. Nala grabbed the branch with her teeth, pulled it back, and called out to Meka through gritted teeth.

"Hey slobber breath!" She cried, to which Meka turned around to glare at Nala with hunger. She let go of the bent branch and it went straight to the hyena's face.

Meka flew back, and waddled away in fright and confusion, and Nala leapt back up into the tree, where Ni was holding onto the branch with his claws buried into the wood. For a few minutes, they caught their breath, but for another minute or so, they finally decided to talk.

"I thought you were going to pounce on me. But you saved my life instead." Nala said through brief gasps of air.

"What, I don't attack other lions, I just tend to look scary if you saw me for the first time alone. Anyways, I wouldn't hurt a flaky one like you anyway." Ni said with his head now fully focused on Nala, who just stood there perplexed, but now looked a bit angry.

"Hey, I'm not flaky, I helped you from falling didn't I." Nala snapped.

"Okay then, explain why you were wandering around out here by yourself, you know that you're still small enough to be hurt easily." Ni told Nala.

"Well, it was sort of a dare me and my friend made." Nala said, now sulking with embarrassment.

"There you have, you're flaky, now do you realize your mistake." Ni said with a smile. Nala thought the strange lion was beginning to get cocky with correction, so she changed the subject.

"Who are you anyway, what's your name?" Nala asked with her ears perched down. Ni looked up, and breathed a sigh of playful defeat.

"It's Ni, and I just came for a home, that's it." Ni leapt back down onto the savannah, and Nala followed by climbing back from the trunk.

"Well what happened in your own pride?" Nala asked, now fully interested in Ni's background. Ni smiled, now becoming fond of making a new friend in the Pride Lands.

"Well, it was time for all young males to travel out of their home and find a new pride to live in, so my time came, and I couldn't say no to responsibility." Ni said while he walked slowly on the African plain with Nala.

"I'm Nala." Nala said.

Ni nodded in understanding, and Nala continued the conversation.

"I guess I just thought you were younger, oops, maybe that was a dumb thing to say." Nala giggled with her paw over her mouth. Ni laughed and stopped to explain.

"Yeah, it's true that I'm a bit smaller than average. It just means I can't afford to be flaky, right?" Ni grinned. Nala smiled, but her smile grew with an idea from her head.

"Hey, why don't you come with me back to Pride Rock, I'm sure my pride will understand you're not dangerous if you'd tell them that you saved me. My mom will actually be grateful, and my two friends will get a surprise to see that I completed the dare." Nala turned to face Ni, who had a worried expression on his face.

"Well, I'm not sure, I mean, I do have some friends waiting back in the plains." Ni explained.

"Well I'm sure, are your friends other lions?" Nala asked with worry about the friends mentioned.

"Not exactly, they're actually a couple of lemurs I found walking in the desert, and we sort of just got along, but I'm probably sure you're not familiar with lemurs." Ni said. Nala was stunned to hear lemurs mentioned, because she had found one the other night.

"Wait, they're lemurs, that's too amazing for it to be a coincidence; I found one under Pride Rock last night." Nala said with glee. Ni was shocked to hear Julien was incorrect about the three of them being the only ones of their kind in Africa. He was now deeply interested in the Pride Lands.

"Whoa, you had the misfortune to find another one?" Ni asked.

"Misfortune?" Nala responded to a regretful Ni.

"Never mind, sure, I'll visit your pride; it will be nice to meet the famous Pride Rock's royal denizens." Ni said with enthusiasm. Nala shook paws with Ni, and they trotted towards Pride Rock.

At Pride Rock, Nala went up Pride Rock's pathway first, but her legs were so sore from all the running earlier, that it felt like climbing Mount Kilimanjaro.

"Whoa, I never thought I'd be so tired in my life before." Nala said through heavy pants, and looked up at Ni, who didn't seem to break a sweat.

"Yeah, well it won't be such of a challenge once your legs are a little longer." said Ni.

About halfway up the slope, Nala stopped to catch her breath, and suddenly she was sure she had heard a noise.

"Ni, can you stay till after the hunt, then we can……………" Nala was cut short by heavy panting and wheezing.

"Hello Ni, I've found you, hi strange friend of Ni, so I was hoping you'd help us, you like?" Mort asked the distraught Ni, who then saw Mort's other two friends Julien and Maurice leap from the side of Pride Rock, being chased by Meka, the hyena from earlier.

'So that's why he left' Nala thought with panic, seeing the hyena come closer, with four more hyenas as backup.

"Get those little rodents, and seize that cub as a main course too!" Meka shouted to his comrades, who all leapt to attack, only for Nala's mother Sarafina to arrive to their rescue, swatting away at thehyenas with Ni's help, who also leapt into action.

Once the hyenas retreated, Julien and Maurice sighed with relief.

"Those were some big foosa, and I know big when I see it." Maurice said with panic fading. Julien however leapt onto Sarafina's face and kissed her cheeks.

"Thank you so much for saving our lives, we are in your royal debt lioness, for I King Julien of the lemurs, have seen a service done only once a month." Julien bowed down to Sarafina, who simply stood there perplexed.

"Sure, glad to help, and Nala, who's this?" Sarafina asked.

"This is Ni mom, and he's from another pride, and I'm guessing these three are his lemur friends he had been talking about along the way, oh did I mention he saved me from a hyena?" Nala asked, making his mother smile at Ni, obviously thankful.

"Thank you for your help Ni, Nala's friend Kula told me about my daughter's whereabouts, and I'm glad she's home safely, you're welcome to stay for today if you'd like." Sarafina proposed.

"You're very kind, oh, these are my acquaintances Mort, Maurice, and Julien." Ni introduced the three lemurs, one which seemed unique in the eyes of Sarafina.

"Oh, I see you've met Rafiki, our shaman, he gave you that mark didn't he?" Sarafina asked Julien, who smiled in agreement.

"Well, I'm sure you're welcome to stay as well then, come on in, it's getting cold." Sarafina walked inside the den, with Nala, Ni, and the lemurs following close behind.

"Nice looking place, need to get the name of your decorator!" Maurice exclaimed into the den, surprised at seeing plenty of shelter. The lemur Rocio, lionsess Sarabi, and lion cubs Kula and Chumvi came trotting towards the new guests, but Julien immediately homed into Rocio.

"You!" Julien exclaimed in a loud voice, now remembering Rocio, as one of the king's royal helpers, only never remembering her name.

"King Julien, it's so good to see you again, I thought you'd never came out of that plane!" Rocio shook hands with Julien, shaking him violently, with Kula and Chumvi laughing in the background.

"Yes, nice to meet you too, _freak_." Julien said under muttered breath.

While the introductions began, Crumble the savannah monitor was hot on Julien's ring tail.

"I've got you in my sights royal pain, and soon I'll (twitch) finally earn the reptiles some respect, and don't worry, not a scratch on you, because you're fragile mail for The Medic, Cherehe, and Rogelio." Crumble said with glee right outside the lionesses' den. Kobe was with him, and not impressed by his progress.

"Are you just going to stand there, or get into some real action?" Kobe asked with bent fists. Crumble became worried.

"Violence, oh no, that is not the way to act in the ColdBloods." Crumble said, with a finger wagging towards the leopard tortoise.

"Well then get moving, you move slower than me, and I'm a tortoise!" Once Kobe said this, everyone inside the den lifted their heads and looked outside.

Kobe and Crumble were fortunate enough to get out of view, and everyone inside simply shrugged the tortoise off.

**No, I'm still writing, and this story is not discontinued, I'm done with Chapter 8, and I hope you enjoy it. **

**Remember to review some more, because I didn't get any comments on my last chapter, so I hope I get some more feedback with this more original subplot.**

**Thank you for reading, and I hope to hear from you soon.**


	9. Terribly Misinformed

_I'm really sorry about the wait, but I finished chapter 9 at last. This week had been busy, and didn't get the chance to start till' the weekend. Anyways, the penguins are now in the story and hopefully they're in character. Enjoy _

Chapter 9 – Terribly misinformed

"So how was the cub, did it slash your throat?" Shenzi asked Meka, who now had the hyena trio interested in his story.

The sun had now begun to set, and all of the hyenas were now beginning to come out of their hiding spots, ready to hunt. All the animals and herds became frightened as the laughter had begun to rise throughout the plains, and spread out in panic, knowing an awful evil will quickly pick them off, one by one.

Meka growled at all the zebras running from the hyena's direction, and cursed himself when all the zebras huddled together in a harem and ran as a whole.

"It's going to be tough to take these down, but at least black and white will be the last colors they'll see, ha, ha!" Meka leapt at the youngest foal, who cried in terror. The foal tripped on his way back towards the nearby herd, and Meka landed right on top of him.

"Hey, get your stinkin' paws off him, or I'll chew your hat, if you happen to have such a fruity hat!" The lead zebra stepped up, and though quite scrawny, he had the temper of a New Yorker on parole. Shenzi, Ed, and Banzai stepped up from behind, and mocked the zebra in a ludicrous manner.

"Well come and get some stripy, or will you simply back down for supper today?" The hyena Banzai laughed at the zebra, only for a flash of light to scare off the entire zebras.

Even Meka leapt off of the foal he had under his paws, seeing the flash of light come directly towards the gorge in the distance.

"Huh, he, he, ha!" Ed yelped and shook his head in excitement, knowing that lights were good luck when it came down to superstition.

"What Ed, what do you want?!" Shenzi asked with a pout. Ed pointed towards the gorge with his head and kept still, like an arrow guiding you towards a path. Banzai thought about it, and smiled.

"Hey, what if supper isn't over yet, what if we're just about to _chow down_?" Banzai grinned at his words, and then Shenzi grinned as well.

"Yeah, now I see where you're going with this Banzai, the old scavenger saying, of course." Shenzi proclaimed.

"_See a light fools, hear me well, are you hungry, hey that's swell, feel like bird or even trout, it will be better with crocodile snout, go to the light and state your will, because only then will you receive your fill."_ The hyenas chanted, leaving an amused Ed become ravenous with hunger and impatience.

"Well let's go already, I'm so darn hungry!" Banzai and the other three ran away from the rest of their comrades, so as to not bring more hungry mouths.

"It bothers me that nobody else saw this." Meka yelped while sprinting. The hyenas yipped all the way towards the gorge, only a couple of days after the terrible deed they had committed there…….

**In the gorge**

The mood around the clearing happened to be very sullen, and not a living thing scurried around the floor of the gorge, well not so much as scurrying as………………..waddling.

"Uh, mayday report, flightless bird down, the mayhem, so much mayhem, all those melons right at our engines." Skipper the penguin waddled out of the plane wreck behind him, feeling very light headed at the many blows he had taken to his head.

The other three penguins were right behind him. The tallest of the four walked in front of Skipper, ready to moan about his mistake.

"Uh, why did I even drop all the chimps off when you warned me not to Skipper, I thought I was a genius, but do I fare better as a liability?" Kowalski, the smart one of the four penguins, asked himself in despair, only to be flipper slapped by his leader Skipper, the macho commander of the group.

"Snap out of it Kowalski, you did what no other penguin could do, you shunned orders and acted on instinct, and that's saying something in your case." Skipper told his distraught companion. Kowalski gave a puzzled expression to the smoking wreck behind them, and his leader in front of him.

"How is releasing twenty two, banana obsessed chimpanzees an act of instinct Skipper?" Kowalski asked.

"You know, I don't have the slightest clue, but it's my duty to keep you all in good health, emotional and physical." Skipper said. The youngest and most inexperienced walked right beside Kowalski and Skipper, with a piece of metal over his head.

"Aw don't worry guys, we'll be alright, we've just got to find Rocio, and see if Rogelio really did escape." Private said, shuddering at the mention of the leopard's name.

"I don't understand, I'm the one who led those tourists to him and his python friend, I made sure he was captured, and contained in those awful cages he deserves to spend the rest of his life in!" Skipper cried out in a dramatic posture, only for Private to place a flipper over his shoulder as a way of saying 'Don't lose it'.

"So Kowalski, how do we get out of here?" Skipper asked his friend, who looked around the enormous gorge they had fallen into, and came up with an idea.

"Of course, find an aged rock slide; there should be one around here somewhere." Kowalski immediately left the others to search immediately, but was halted by his teammates.

"Kowalski, don't you think leaving a smoking wreck of airplane here would be a bit suspicious to the animals living here?" Private asked his friend, who slapped himself silly.

"Of course, everyone, come with me."

**5 minutes later**

"Good as gone Skipper!" Kowalski said with glee, as the three penguins were staring at rocks poorly placed all over the plane wreck. Kowalski smiled and sighed.

"No animal would even grow the slightest amount of curiosity as to what this is." Kowalski held a flipper up for an up high, but Skipper simply switched to sarcasm.

"Oh yeah, no worries Kowalski, no animal will _ever_ know about this enormous pile of wood and metal!" Skipper said with exaggeration. Kowalski immediately put his flipper down in shame.

"I'm sorry Skipper, I just can't stand to be once again stranded because of miscalculation anymore, curse you science!" Kowalski cried to the sky. Skipper and Private were about to console him, when all of a sudden……………..

"Well, well, well Shenzi, look what we've got here, ha, ha, ha!" Four hyenas began making their way down from an aged rock slide.

"Oh, so there's the rock slide." Kowalski came back to his old self, but all three penguins shivered in fright as the hyenas quickly surrounded them. The leader of the group came forwards and sneered at them with her pearly whites.

"I think we've made our wish come true Banzai, plump juicy birds with some sauce sounds good right about now." Shenzi said.

Kowalski and Skipper were standing stiff, and Private attempted to greet the hyenas, with poor luck.

"Oh, hello, I'm Private, this is Skipper, and that's Kowalski, and you are?" Private said, only for the youngest hyena, Meka, to step forward with no mention of what Private just said.

"Right on, we've got ourselves a _private_ dinner, and none of the other hyenas know anything about it, that's all you need to know." Meka said with a sort of lisp in his menacing accent. Shenzi, Banzai, Ed, and Meka began to surround the three penguins.

"Is this the way to treat your stranded guests here hyena, because I recall a certain law that forbids any kind of menacing approaches." Skipper said with a waving flipper.

"Oh, and which law is that, chunky bird?" Shenzi asked with her tongue beginning to drop. Skipper, Private, and Kowalski smiled.

"This law as a matter of fact, _**Rico**_!" Right when Skipper shouted the word, the fourth member of the penguin crew broke violently out of the rubble behind them, laughing with a flare gun.

"Rico, distraction!" Skipper shouted as he and his crew began to disperse, while Rico launched a flare into the sky, making the hyenas curious for awhile, but very quickly ignored it and chased after the penguins, cornering them again.

"Nice try, but your fancy gadgets won't get you anywhere around a hyena's stomach!" Shenzi said, as she picked Skipper up with her jaws, and fled the scene.

Her other three comrades did the same with the others……………….

**Ten minutes later**

"Uh, I guess hyenas are more intelligent than the foosa, eh Skipper." Private said to his leader, who was dangling from the ceiling, along with the other penguins.

"I should have known foosa are only indigenous to the Madagascar Island, therefore making the hyena species much more intelligent with more landscape freedom and button burgers." Kowalski said, but without any sense.

"Kowalski, are you okay?" Private asked the dazed penguin. Kowalski smiled a perplexed grin.

"Sure to there man, I'm as straight as a jungle borne Mamba!" Kowalski said, later falling fast to sleep, hanging from the ceiling via holes fit for their webbed feet.

"Huh, I wonder what we're doing here, oh dear!" Private discovered his own answer as he looked down to see a geyser boiler right below, fit for four small birds. All four, well three, penguins gulped hard as they saw the hyenas laughing at the ingredients they were considering to put into the geyser.

"How about some ostrich eggs and some gazelle, we'll call it birdie special with extra dung, how 'bout it Shenzi?" Banzai exclaimed in hunger, but dung did not appeal to the other three.

"Nah, Banzai, how about some exquisite wildebeest kielbasa?" Shenzi was thrilled when Ed and the others agreed.

"Then what are we waiting for, let's go!" Meka exclaimed, only for the rest to stay still.

"Yeah, but who's going to guard the birds?" Shenzi asked.

"We're penguins for crying out loud!" Skipper called out, making the hyenas even more doubtful about security. Shenzi glared at Skipper.

"Nobody asked flightless!" Shenzi hollered up at their four captives.

"If some other scavengers here Mr. Correction up there, we'll be spending the night with no entrees!" Banzai said, making all of the hyenas now vigilant of each other, thinking that one of them will attempt to take the penguins as their own meal, no share.

"Well, there is no way I'm leaving them with any of you thieves!" Meka cried out in anger. Ed begged to differ.

"Ho, he, he, ha, ha, huh, huh!" Ed laughed at Meka in protest, and growled at him, daring him to try and stay here himself. Meka stepped down, knowing Ed didn't know any rules to the art of fighting, and him being the youngest, there was just no way.

"Okay, so who's the one going hunting?!" All the hyenas began to bicker about who had to leave, but up in the ceiling, the penguins had a brilliant idea.

"Hey, Shenzi is it?" Skipper called out to the lead female, who again glared at him.

"Before you tell me to shut it, I have an announcement to make!" Skipper easily got all of the hyenas' attention.

"Since you have captured us, I figure you would want a delicious, mind expanding meal, made with many juicy sauces, and tangy feathers on us." Skipper said.

"Yeah, we followed the light, and here you are, so I'm guessing we'll have our fill." Banzai said with his tongue drooping. Skipper smiled.

"Well, if you let us go, we'll instantly give you a new meal, foreign of even your own taste buds, foreign of all of Africa, and I'll give ourselves around ten minutes to give you said meal." Skipper crossed his flippers, and raised an eyebrow.

"No way, you'll slide out of here in an instant, and leave us to starve and die of boredom!" Banzai cried out.

"No, and to make my message serious, I'll leave behind my three comrades as leverage, and if I don't come back by night fall, you can shove them down your wooly throats." This statement caused the three other penguins to gasp aghast.

"Besides, the insane trail of thought of your friend Ed is equivalently matched to Rico's here, your friend Banzai's aggressive behavior for superiority is equivalent of Kowalski's, and Meka down there is experienced as Private up here, barely experienced, so they're all basically perfect meals fit for your friends, Kowalski to Banzai, Rico to Ed, and Private to Meka." Skipper said, but was released in an instant on a painful thud to the ground.

"Alright, prove you're right, and I'll hope you're a bird of your feather, or I'll be hunting down my share of the catch." Shenzi said with a smile, leading him out of the Elephant Graveyard.

"But Skipper, you know we can't hunt out in the wilderness without human escort!" Kowalski said.

"Just hope that sushi in the storage is still fresh." Skipper called out as he slid out.

"Oh, Skipper, once again you have proven your mind is craftier than mine." Kowalski said with a smile as Skipper fled the scene towards the wrecked plane.

**Alright, Chapter nine up, and I'll be reading your reviews the minute they are posted. I am planning to bring a complex plot to the story filled with more emotion than comedy now that I look through it a second time, what do you think? Anyways, I hope you keep reading ****Kingdom See, Kingdom Go****. Remember to inform me with reviews, and I'll try to finish the next chapter sooner. Hope you enjoyed Chapter 9. **


	10. Leader in the making, with connections

_And I am back; hopefully you've been missing the chapters. Again, I am truly sorry for the long and possibly frustrating wait you had to go through for this chapter (two weeks, again my bad), but nothing else holding me back now, because my procrastination paid off. Hakuna Matata, Chapter 10 is up, and this one is pretty long, which is a good thing I assume. Maybe this one will bring in some reviews, because I think the reason I'm not getting any reviews is because my chapters lack in size, and maybe appear a bit too rushed. Well, this one will probably fix my past mistakes, because I had been thinking about how this story can work it out through to the end. Ideas immediately came in, and this is part of the result. I hope Madagascar Queen likes my including of Timon and Pumbaa in the story, based on consideration. Well, enjoy Chapter 10 everybody, and thank you again for your patience._

Chapter 10 – Leader in the making, with a few connections

"….and so, the lion's den was home to the many kings of the past from then on, and Ahadi began his royal bloodline of the many rulers of the Pride lands, thus continuing the circle of life." Zazu explained with a smile, only for him to open his eyes and see only three animals who were listening to his story, which were in fact the only ones who ever opened their ears to the majordomo. Only the foreign ring-tailed lemur showed sufficient interest.

The sun had risen around two hours ago and Julien had been the first to wake up. He had also been the one to give his two other lemurs companions the very well known; rude awakening.

The sun had yet to shine upon the Pride Lands, but it did not matter on what your eyes lay before you when your ears are the ones most acute by mind.

Zazu, the hornbill acting as second banana to the king, had taken interest in Julien's curiosity during their first meeting, and promised the anxious king lemur a back-story on the history of the Pride lands.

Julien hadn't the slightest touch of dream weaving in him, and refused to lay down for napping any longer while there was the urge of discovery in his very soul.

"So what you are saying is that every great king of the past has existed here, on these very lands that I am standing on right now?" Julien asked, with wonder and marvel in his eyes, much contrasted by his followers Maurice and Mort, who were lying on their backs snoring the rest of the morning peacefully away. Zazu dismissed the other two, and began to interact with his only listener.

"Why yes, most of the grand leaders ruled in the Pride Lands, with relative ease if you do happen to ask me twice." Zazu began to pace around the lemur, ready to surprise his "audience" with his infamous lectures of unfortunate length. Luckily, the aye-aye and mouse lemur rested their ears for another time.

"It was in that rock housing the lionesses in which countless generations of royalty _blossomed_ with the profound instinct to keep these virgin lands spotless of any shifting of the grand circle of life," Zazu hunched at the thought of his next words," it had been till _now_ that those slobbery savages we call hyenas were let in by our latest addition to the throne, Taka, or as we now try to remember him, as King Scar!"

Julien gasped at the mention of Taka's current name, because it was that name the vulture Choyo had been idolizing during his constant lip moving. Julien thought of Scar as a wonderful role model for him, well the main fact being because, deep inside of him: he wished to be the best king anybody could look up to. Julien had been dreaming constantly about the possible future of glory, thinking it would bring even more followers. However, his dreams eventually led to a tragic ending in which Julien himself were left alone to weep in his own drenched fur, under the cold and fur-soaking rain.

"Scar is the king here, correct birdie?" Julien became reassured to see the hornbill nod grudgingly, ignoring the grunginess.

"Yes, I've been led to the right place, I need to ask Scar if he can give us the way for home, how I long a long shower." Julien danced in his trail of fantasy, but was knocked aside by a wing, a blue wing. Zazu flew up to Julien's nose and spat out what needed to be said.

"You can't possibly be considering a hasty approach to the king are you?" Zazu cried out in terror as he fluttered right in front of Julien's cranium.

"But of course I plan to approach him; I've heard many great things about him." Julien said, trying to sound reassuring.

"From wherever did you ever receive these supposed "great things" from, the dung beetles?" Zazu had landed now, and nervously ruffled his handsome feathers in doubt of Julien's sanity. Zazu patted the ground with his feet, trying to look firm.

"Oh come on, what can be so bad about King Scar, I mean, he has to have some friends right?" Julien asked, now in a mumble, knowing Zazu would react in a burst, but the majordomo kept his outbursts to himself thankfully.

"I'm not certain you understand, Scar is not the social type, if you catch by drift." Zazu looked at Julien, who in return became more perplexed than ever before.

"But the vultures said that Scar gave plenty of food to them, so I assumed they must be friends or whatever it is the young people call them these days. Oh who are you fooling Julien, you are young." Julien said with gibberish cooing.

"Well, have you the faintest clue of what vultures eat?" Zazu raised a friendly eyebrow to the lemur, seeing how he was actually thinking about the scavengers' diet.

"Uh, French fries?" Julien winced, knowing he was as wrong as he could get.

"No, they feast on the dead, and Scar is slowly making food scarce for the herds here, such as the giraffe's favorite leaves. In baby talk, Scar is feeding the vultures with whatever dead remains here." Zazu said with a large huff.

The moment Zazu finished, Mort and Maurice both woke up, with a sudden snort. Mort yawned in an adorable fashion, and scratched his nose before his large eyes opened wide. Maurice however, woke up with a grunt that signaled his head was dizzied by the slow awakening, but suddenly jolted straight up.

"Good Morning your majesty, I forgot about the Pride Lands, may I begin the grooming routine your majesty?" Maurice nervously held a tray of fingernail clips made of wood. Julien held out a hand, smiling as he did it.

"No longer necessary Maurice, Zazu here will now be able to help me change my ways and start over. I am a changed lemur now, nothing can possibly be denied of my past methods. To be honest, I was afraid we were going to die in the desert, and had no hope of saving you two. However, I now see a new King Julien." The lemur king proclaimed with pride.

"You can take your tail away from my beak, thank you very much." Zazu said with disgust as Julien's prized ring tail fluffed over Zazu's head. King Julien apologized, and kept going.

"So you see Mort, Maurice, I have now decided to take it upon myself to learn from these Great Kings of the Past to be the best king there has ever been!" Julien exclaimed with joy.

"So what you are saying is, that with these so-called "Great Kings of the past", you will be able to become the best ruler this world has to offer?" Maurice asked with his shoulders flexing.

"Yes, that is precisely it." Julien posed as he said this to look like an epic hero.

The silence that followed was awkward, but after a few moments of warm sun shining upon the mischievous group, happiness unfolded.

"Ba, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!" Mort and Maurice began to laugh hysterically and began to roll around on the dirt in an insane matter, later pointing and teasing their friend, until they had at last caught their breath.

"Aw man Julien, buddy, you can't be serious, I mean, sure you're a good king, but you're anything _but_ a perfect leader, you get where I'm going with this man?" Maurice asked the now furious king.

"Oh, so that is what you think of me Maurice eh, well I'll have you know I can change, and I will start right now by punishing you most severely for your taunting!" King Julien said as he dramatically walked on top of a boulder, carrying with him a new surprise.

"This crown was made by the very resources of these lands, and now it tells about everyone that I will soon be the grand pupil of the masters in the sky." Julein said with light eyes and a wide smile.

Maurice went up towards him, and removed the crown, which was made out of dirt, grass blades, and decayed feces.

"Yeah well, you aren't going to get any followers with this as your piece of public image." Maurice said with a chuckle, throwing the thing aside.

Mort crept up to the crown, and screamed in terror from its horrid smell.

"Ahh, it is B.A.D, it is B.A.D!" Mort cried out as he crouched down with his hands over his eyes, before grabbing Zazu's right wing to cover his shivering body. Zazu quickly removed his wing from Mort's grip and looked at the mouse lemur with dismay.

Right on the spot, Zazu's pupils dilated as he saw the animals he dreaded so much: coming his way. Zazu tried to make his warning come out of his beak, but he was dry as a decayed sweet fruit.

"Hye……behi……ou!" Zazu pointed his index feather towards the approaching predators, trying as best he could to get the words out.

"Say what Zazu, I don't have any idea you're saying." Julien patted his foot on the ground with hands to his hips and a studying eye on the pertrified hornbill.

"Hyena…….look…….behind…..y…" Zazu was cut off by none other than……..

"Why, if it isn't the king's little stooge, and his new entrée butte buddies, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ah." Shenzi said with an evil glare on her maliciously hilarious smile. Banzai, Ed, and Meka walked up from behind as well, all giving the four small animals a similar smile.

"Well, if it isn't my well mannered acquaintances who will promise to let me go in peace!" Zazu was just about to fly off in a rush, only for Shenzi to roll her eyes and place her paw over Zazu's tail feathers, just as she had done that fateful day in the Elephant Graveyard.

"Hornbill, chill, we only want a few questions answered, since you do scan these lands, is that correct?" Shenzi said with her trademark smile of reassurance. Julien and the lemurs were now surrounded by the three other hyenas.

"And who are you again?" Banzai asked with a raised eyebrow. Meka sneered at the sight of the ring-tailed lemur.

"I think it was supposed to be yesterday's supper, unfortunately they had me taken aloof by that little brat's mommy." Meka growled and shuddered in disgust from the events of last night.

"A brat?" Banzai asked.

"Yeah, you know the cub." Meka said with a small amount of drool dropping towards the ground. Shenzi laughed as she began to play with Zazu just as a human child would play with a paddle ball. Right after the eighth hit, Shenzi flung Zazu onto Maurice's open arms.

"Oh okay, well can I go now?!" Mort shouted out with innocent eyes. Shenzi simply walked straight towards Zazu, pushing Mort aside.

"Do you know anything about, flightless birds?" Shenzi asked with sincerity. Zazu thought about it and answered in a quick jib.

"Flightless birds eh. Well that would easily be a no." Zazu chuckled nervously, and then was hushed by Ed's mad laughter.

"That would be incorrect mister majordomo bananabeak, because we happen to have caught a couple around the other night, and we………….." Shenzi was cut off by Zazu.

"….ate them didn't you?" Zazu answered with a predictable look in his eyes.

"No, they fed us with some beautiful pounds of rare fish, canned tuna they called it." Shenzi licked her lips at the thought of the meat she had taken into her the night before.

"Oh yes, I have heard of such a dish, it actually sounds like the food of those pesky pengui……………" Julien's lips were shut tight by Maurice's hands, and Maurice looked nervously around him.

"He, he, penguiskilii, yes, it is a rare animal of good protein for you handsome predators of prey." Maurice gave a smile to the hyenas, and then Julien, furious beneath Maurice's hands. Mort laughed lightly.

"Penguiskilii, why that sounds ridiculous, in fact it almost sounds like pengu………" Zazu's mouth was abruptly covered by Mort's tiny hands, and he shushed the hornbill with apologetic eyes.

"Me guess we should flee now!" Mort ran with Julien and Maurice, with Zazu flying overhead towards Pride Rock while crossing across the many small mud puddles ahead of them.

"Hey!" The hyenas were just about to leave running towards their intended breakfast, until Ed looked up into the sky and gave a whimper. The other three hyenas looked into the direction of his waving paw and gasped together.

"Oh Ed you're right, the sun has reached the passing of late morning, and it's time to wake the lionesses up for the new morning hunt. I guess they'll get our breakfast instead, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha." Banzai said with his hyena friends chuckling and whooping behind him. Meka stopped laughing, and decided to quote his new friends.

"Why do we have to wake the lionesses up for the hunt, don't they usually hunt by their own time?" Meka asked with his head tilted to one side. As vicious as Meka was, inside he was a young adolescent that mimicked the actions of his savage elders.

"What, why Meka, every hyena knows that we are in charge now, and nothing can stop us from getting an easy meal, or as the penguins like to call it, some fast food, ha, ha, ha!" Shenzi said with a happy expression on her face. Meka stared at her with question in his eyes, because his mother had always said hyenas had hunt for themselves for more than twenty generations, and had yet to become accustomed to these new routines of laziness.

"If you said it Shenzi, it probably must be true." Meka said, with his savageness absent from his mind.

**In the barren wastelands**

"Hey Marty, I think I've finally spotted a place to begin searching, and boy, it sure looks beautiful, like an enormous steak covered in zesty sauce!" Alex called out to his friend, who had been sleeping the entire time. Melman was overjoyed to see a place worth landing.

"Ah great, now I can finally stretch my neck out all the way, what a cramp I'm having right now." Melman said with his neck snapping at every quick turn he made. Gloria stomped onto the hot air balloon's basket, and their transportation went down immediately with a thud. Gloria stomped her foot so roughly onto the balloon's basket, that the fire levitating it went out and the balloon itself deflated.

Once the poorly made balloon landed, Gloria heaved herself out, and was shocked to feel the balloon behind her catapult itself out into the desert, becoming obliterated and leaving Melman, Marty, and Alex dazed with the impact.

Gloria placed her hands to her mouth and giggled.

"Ha, sorry guys, I guess I still don't know my strength." Gloria ran over to help her friends up. Melman lifted himself up onto the dry ground, and then twisted his neck.

"Wait, my pain is gone, wow, thanks Gloria!" Melman said with glee. Gloria held his head next to her eyes.

"Aw, you know I'd do anything for my sweetie neck!" Gloria nuzzled Melman's nose with her own, causing both to giggle. Alex grimaced at the sight and decided he had enough.

"Okay, nobody is getting neck to neck around here, so if we could just go and start searching here, I mean look at that view." Sure enough, the oasis Alex was heading towards was majestic compared to the rest of the desert, and was surrounded by large amounts of dry blades of grass, capable of shielding an entire lion pride of fifteen from view.

The cool and moist atmosphere of the oasis held enough evidence to prove this part of the wasteland held large amounts of water in its core.

"Alright, come on everybody, let's do this!" Marty said with enthusiasm as the four zoosters traveled towards the unknown jungle inside.

After a few minutes of running through the dry grass, the zoosters found themselves being confronted by one of the most beautiful environments they had ever witnessed as travelers. All four animals had their jaws dropping towards the ground, for the many vines and trees around them stretched out horizontally, covered in lush flowers and fruit of all sorts.

"It's………amazing." Alex said with an expressionless look on his face that was ready to burst into a smile. Marty was just as petrified by the landscape as Alex was, and was dumb struck at how some jungle could out-beauty New York City in almost everyway.

"Well what do you know guys; New York has some major competition." Gloria says. Melman nods his head in agreement.

"Yeah, to think I spent all my days taking prescription pills, physical exams, checkups, and my one too many shots and MRI's, when I feel as cured as I'll ever be right here." Melman smiled and began to feel the trees and the grass, and soon lost self control.

"The murky moss, no rash, the slimy leaves, no wheezing, the dandelions, no allergies, it's like a miracle!" Melman began to stampede towards the clearing up ahead, leaving the other three wide-eyed.

"No Melman, don't run off too fast, you've no idea what's out there!" Alex called out to his friend, but it was too late, Melman had left them behind.

**Somewhere deep inside the oasis**

"The Cricket Crunching Contest is about to begin, right about………………now!" Pumbaa exclaimed with pride, and then belched to signal the beginning of the competition.

A cub's determined eye caught sight of the meerkat in front of him, and then trailed off to see a cricket hop onto the ground beneath his feet.

"It starts." Timon the meerkat said dramatically as he lifted the first cricket off a nearby log and chewed it up. Simba, the lion cub opposite of him, did the same, and soon the two friend lifted the log and various rocks off to see hundreds of crickets bounce in all directions, almost each one landing straight into either Timon or Simba's maw.

"Ha, there's no way you're beating me now Timon, I've got all of the small ones already!" Simba exclaimed with pride, as he caught all of the smaller crickets in midair with a bite for each one.

"Have you forgotten about all of the big ones Simba, the more the merrier ya know!" Timon said, picking several oversized crickets up with his hands, and stuffing them into his mouth. Simba quickly ran to all the crickets and caught three at a time with each bite, catching them like tennis balls bouncing directly into tennis rackets.

Five minutes later, the crickets had disappeared from the clearing, with only a few survivors bouncing off into the risen tree roots. Simba licked his paws gently; removing any cricket bits off, and then running over his small yellow hair tuft with his left paw, combing himself. Simba knew he had won, and trotted over to Timon, who lay gasping for air.

"Well Timon, looks like I've beat you again." Simba giggles with delight of winning for the fifth time in contests, and helps his friend up with his head. Timon finally stands, and swallows deeply to keep the crickets down.

"I think I've swallowed a live one." Timon says as his stomach begins chirping mildly. Pumbaa runs up to Timon and listens at the chirping.

"Well, I've always heard that several gulps of water should keep your food down." Pumbaa says to Timon, who begins to worry.

"Yeah, well I need about half a gallon because I think I've got two crickets bouncin' around in here!" Timon says.

His stomach then surprisingly begins to show bulges popping out here and there, making Simba and Pumbaa believe the meerkat. Pumbaa picks Timon up with his snout, and allows Simba to ride on his back.

"Hop on Simba, we've got to get this patient moving and stat!" Pumbaa exclaims as he begins to stutter out siren alarm sound effects, much to Simba's delight as he begins laughing the whole way towards the water pond.

**Too close by…………………**

"Melman wait, you have no idea where you're headed!" Gloria cried out to her unseen friend. Melman had fled ahead of the gang, and now a search had commenced. As the gang ran through the lush environment, a poor lion named Alex was tripping through all the roots on the ground.

"Okay, I think this is all too familiar guys, so how about we stop for awhile?" Alex asked his friends, who had disappeared in front of his eyes. Alex looked in surprise, and searched the jungle as he ran.

"Marty, Gloria where are you, is this a joke, Ah?!" Alex fell down a rocky landslide, where it was leading towards an enormous lake with water being poured by an equally enormous waterfall.

"Ha, very funny, now can you help me," Alex said as he fell ", guys, guys?!"

"Help, anybody…………Ahhhhh…………..still a beautiful view though." Alex said with a smile during his plight. Alex continued to fall down towards the lake.

Alex attempted to grab a hold of a boulder to hang onto, but with misfortune, it broke off and Alex continued to plummet to his doom. Alex looked ahead and saw a sixty degree slant leading directly to the lake.

"I'm dead." Alex said as he used his claws to bury into the dirt, hoping to delay the inevitable. He failed as a chunk of earth ripped off from the ground where Alex's claws were buried into, and gravity took Alex down for the ride.

"Oh no, ahhhhhhhh!" Alex cried out to the sky as he fell down into a pampered cat's mortal enemy: the water.

'SPLASH'

Alex opened his eyes underwater to see a clear view of multicolored fish swimming in various amounts of schools. He scanned the area for awhile, mostly to view its beauty.

'Wow, is there any piece of dung here to at least add a bit of realism to the place…………uh-oh, NEED AIR!' Alex's thoughts immediately focused onto reaching the surface. He swam as hard as he could to take a much needed gasp of air into his shriveled lungs.

"Ah, much better," Alex said as he swam towards the shallows ", oh, there you guys are!"

Marty and Gloria were cleansing their skins from the mud they had ran into while reaching shore by dumping their body parts into parts of clean water running through rocks.

"Alex, there you are, we'd thought you had lost track of us." Gloria said. The soaking wet lion wiped his eyes free of water, and dried his tail by rolling it tightly.

"Yeah, I did lose track of you, only I was smart enough to keep running until I fell down a small little kiddie slide." Alex said with a chuckle. Marty looked directly above Alex, and gasped with awe.

"Well, if that's what you call a kiddie slide, then I must be white with black stripes after all!" Marty exclaimed with echoes bouncing off the enormous rockslide looming over them from a height of around forty feet tall. Alex's claws retracted, and the remaining chunks of dirt dropped to the ground. Alex was as relaxed as anyone could be though.

"Well, even if we did fall here and there, we can just lie here for awhile, I'm sure if we know Melman, he'll come screaming to us with that droopy smile of his, ahhhhhhhhh!" Alex had turned around during his statement to see a warthog scream back at him. What happened next changed Alex forever as an animal.

"Uh, oh!" Pumbaa said.

The warthog blew an enormous amount of wind that blew all over the oasis, making every insect under the ground levitate to the surface, and choke themselves silly towards their comatose bodies, now twitching. All the rodents, monkeys, and lizards in the area fell from the trees, and the bushes were set ablaze. The branches of healthy leaves simply had their leaves vanish in clouds of dew.

Once the shockwave of gas swept the jungle in a storm, the shriveled face of Alex the lion lay charred away, with his mane singed twice as small. Gloria had collapsed into the mud (where it smelled much better), and Marty's stripes were fading away into small ashes, the black stripes.

Pumbaa stood still in front of the three animals and chuckled in embarrassment.

"Oh, sorry." Pumbaa said to the three animals. Alex coughed out bits of fur from his thoat, and looked around.

The jungle had taken a dramatic change in appearance, being completely filled with lush tropical plants a minute ago, and now being surrounded by a wasteland, barley holding on to it's beauty with it's spectacular waterfall and flower adorned trees.

Timon and Simba came out from underwater, and laughed out loud.

"Ha, Pumbaa, once again you break wind in front of our three guests, ha, ha!" Timon said with Simba cracking up from behind.

"Well as funny as this may be to you (cough), there's actually four (cough) of us." Alex said as he used water to cleanse his mane free of all the ashes.

"Well, you must have fallen harder than you thought, there's………….." Just as Simba was about to say three, Melman came crashing down from the vines right onto poor Alex.

"Hey guys, my allergies are back." Melman said right before laying his head back. The warthog, meerkat, and lion cub looked in curiosity as Alex lifted his paw, waving a finger in the air before collapsing.

"You see, three." Simba smiled.

**Back at Pride Rock**

"Come on, rise and shine, its hunting time!" Banzai called into the lionesses' den, making all lionesses stir slowly awake. Nala and Kula were one of the first to fully awaken.

"Yeah, breakfast isn't going to catch itself!" Shenzi called.

"Hey, you can't wake us up like that; you have to hunt for your own food!" Kula yelled with anger. Banzai placed his face directly up to Kula's.

"Yeah, well King Scar would say otherwise, because I don't see anything wrong with a few breakfast meals in bed." Banzai said with his wide grin. Kula began to gag because the smell of his breath was too much.

Nala ran up to her friend and placed a paw on her shoulder.

"Are you okay?" Nala asked.

Kula coughed out loud, now making all the lionesses lift themselves up.

"I'm fine; it's just that I forgot hyenas don't have personal hygiene." Kula gasped. The lionesses shook themselves of rubble as the hyenas began to pester all of the lionesses awake, mostly Banzai.

"Why do you assume you'll be getting a free meal?" Sarabi, the lead huntress, asked through still heavy eyes. Shenzi approached the lioness and did not hold back a response.

"Well, you can go fetch a decent meal for the starving hyenas in the Pride Lands, or you can take your _fetching_ for a punishment, against the new laws of King Scar, hyenas must be respected at all costs, ha, ha, ah, ha!" Shenzi said with glee, and the other two hyenas Banzai and Ed laughed along with her. Meka was still hesitant about Shenzi's decision, mostly because he was used to an exciting morning of hunting, without anyone to hold him back.

"Okay then, we'll hunt for you today, but right after I will report to King Scar to see if you are telling the truth." Sarabi said, with a glare towards the lead hyena. Shenzi began to form her wide smile.

"Oh, believe me, you won't be hearing any lies soon." Shenzi said with her head turning towards the exit. Ed made a few whoops and pointed his head towards Sarabi, Sarafina and the other lionesses.

"Oh yeah, Ed says he's in the mood for zebra today, if you can just jot down a mental note!" Shenzi cackled away with her two hyena friends, followed closely by a sullen Meka.

"Nala, now that you're awake, would you care to see me hunt?" Nala's mother Sarafina asked with a sincere gleam in her eyes. Nala beamed with joy.

"You mean it?" Nala asked, with Sarafina nodding as a response. Nala happily cheered and ran to her friends Kula and Chumvi, who were staring at a beetle skittle across the floor.

"Hey guys, do you want to come with me to see the hunt today?" Nala asked her two friends, who both became filled with excitement.

"Your first hunt, wow, I've never thought we'd see it together." Kula said, hopping up and down with Nala. Chumvi however, became annoyed at Kula's reaction.

"Will you stop shaking you tail in front of my nose, you know I snee……AH-CHOO!" Chumvi slide backwards towards the nearby wall, making Nala and Kula laugh out loud. Chumvi rubbed his nose and heaved himself up immediately.

"Hey, that wasn't funny!" Chumvi said, but the young lionesses continued to laugh, and even cry tears.

Chumvi had enough, and playfully tackled Nala, who easily flipped him over, and pinned him to the floor.

"Pinned yah, yet again." Nala said with a smirk on her face that couldn't be wiped off. Chumvi admitted defeat and changed the subject.

"Shouldn't we be going, all the lionesses left already." Chumvi said with Nala's paws forcing him down. Nala removed her paws and ran off with Kula, making Chumvi sprint to catch up. They were about to go down the side of Pride Rock to drop into the savannah, when they were confronted by the hidden lemurs inside a crack on the wall covering a certain hornbill's beak.

"Hey, you, uh Nala was it, are the foosa gone?" The biggest lemur said through trembling lips. Nala stared with oddity at the three newcomers, and simply nodded.

"If by foosa you mean smelly hyenas, then yes." Nala said.

"Oh thank the kings, I thought those scavengers would never flee, and I do suppose you too were also awakened Nala." Zazu said, breaking free of Maurice's clutches.

"Yes, we would have been in a place of much hurting, right Mort, Mort?" Julien called out for his small friend, and saw Mort a distance away from him, playing with a smaller cub.

"Mort, how many times do I have to tell you, don't touch any animal you don't know without my kingly advice, not all animals have had their vaccinations you know!" Julien hollered out with cupped hands over his mouth, spotting Mort giggling from constant play.

"Oh, I'm sorry King Julien, it just that, lion cub makes me laugh so hard, ha, ha, ha!" Mort cried out with happiness, for he was being tickled by none other than…………

"Mheetu, get off him now!" Nala said, running up to her brother and carrying him off the mouse lemur.

"Oh, I like your brother!" Mort said to Nala. Mheetu giggled at Mort, seeing him as a new friend (or possible chew toy in the future).

"Look baby brother, these are our new friends, and you can't just start playing with them whenever you want." Nala explained in a lecture monologue, only to be ignored and instead became Mheetu's play toy. Mheetu swatted at Nala's tail, and then successfully held it in his paws, giving out a mew of victory.

"Okay baby brother, you win, I'll pretend _again_ like you didn't do anything, so keep playing innocent." Nala walked off to her friends, dragging an active Mheetu behind her on her tail.

"So guys are we going or not?" Nala asked.

"Oh Mheetu, there you are, I thought you were still sleeping with your godmother Neema." Sarafina nuzzled her young son, who in return cooed with comfort. Sarafina however, now looked worried.

"Um, Nala sweetie, I'm not sure you can come see us hunt after all." Sarafina bit her lip as she said this because she received the answer she'd expect from her daughter.

"What, but you promised!" Nala exclaimed.

"Now hold on Nala, I don't think Mheetu is safe around the herds out there. Remember that he's very young, and could get trampled, and you know how he likes to follow you around." Sarafina explained, silencing Nala completely knowing she wouldn't win her trust.

"Alright, I'll take care of my annoying little brother." Nala said as she grimaced at the sight of her tail being chewed by Mheetu. Chumvi and Kula moaned in disappointment as they saw Sarafina lick her children goodbye and head out for the rough hunt ahead of her morning.

Nala paced back towards her friends, and slunk onto the floor, ignoring her tail's ongoing conflict against the wavering paws of Mheetu. Zazu and the lemurs headed over to Nala to try and cheer her up.

"Oh Nala don't worry, there'll be other hunts, quite possibly there could be hunts when the lionesses can hunt for themselves." Zazu said with arms bent down.

"Okay, so what do I do now?" Nala asked her friends. Julien walked over to her in a scurry, and whispered into her open ear.

"_You wouldn't happen to know anything about the Great Kings of the Past would you_?" Julien asked with wide eyes.

**Yessssssssss(As in Joka the phyton's hissing)! Finished at last, my first ten chapters, it's been a great run for me. Okay, now for you guys to give me a heads up on how you think this story is turning out, because I've recently made one of the main genres of my story into friendship( though humor will still be the oxygen pumping through this story's veins). Just try and give me any reviews on the chapters so far, and I'll see what I can do to follow your advice. This time, I won't make any promises on a due date for the eleventh chapter, but again, I'll try to give it to you ASAP. Thanks again for reading ****Kingdom See, Kingdom Go****, and hope to hear from you fans soon.**


	11. Birds of a feather get into trouble

**Chapter 11 – Birds of a feather, get in trouble together**

The winds were picking up speed in the Pride land's borders. Birds were fleeing to their nests and jackals retreated underneath the acacia trees. The temperature dropped dramatically, and clouds were beginning to form over the vast desert near the Outlands, the dry area near the border's reach. Underground however, was an entirely different scenario……………..

Things were heating up below, and for the most part, it came from the frightened minds of the native dwellers.

A burrower sprinted through the burrows and tunnels his ancestors had dug back long ago. Now, they were an inch close to losing it all.

'_Gotta' keep running, gotta' keep running……….must…..lead them……….away_!' was the only thought the aardvark could think of, to save his species' remaining members.

'_Head outside, get help!_' The burrower thought in a flash. He saw the dim ray of setting sunlight he had been looking for, seeing it as a covered exit to the surface.

The aardvark was just about to make it out of the tunnels, until a long object coming from the surface fell on top of him.

"Your home iss my home now Fundi, which you will gladly hand over to ussss!" Joka the python hissed as he made his way into the tunnels.

Fundi the aardvark held his breath, knowing the pythons were their mortal enemies, he knew he wouldn't make it to the surface alive now, with his poor eyesight and all.

Joka continued to slither around Fundi, mocking him as his reptilian followers, Bomoa and Rakibu, broke through the hard dirt and made their way into the deeper levels of the tunnels, where there lay a cave that hid fourteen aardvarks, clinging onto one another for console. Rakibu however, was too large to enter the small holes, so he simply poked his head through instead.

Joka and Bomoa circled around the fourteen burrowers, surrounding and keeping them in place with snaps and hisses.

"Well played Fundi, you've managed to lead us to the last of your hideouts………about time." Bomoa said, approaching the three youngest aardvarks in the cave, which were clutching the arms of their frightened mothers.

"Back away monitor, you've no right to intrude our homes like this!" Vigumu, another male aardvark, stepped forward from the crowd, and faced the invading reptiles. Rakibu, the black Nile monitor, looked at the aardvark, his head sticking in from the surface.

"You dare step forward? What bravery you have to push yourself further into an already difficult errand." Rakibu hissed with anger. The aardvark Vigumu walked up to the middle of the cave the aardvarks had worked so hard to complete.

"We've been using these tunnels for decades. Our ancestors used them for homes. We continue to raise our families here. So we're not about to step down in cowardice just so you slimy, lizard, slugs can use them for your own, sick, reasons!" Vigumu exclaimed. Joka looked unimpressed and slithered towards Vigumu, having enough room in the cave to raise his menacing head to the fullest extent.

"That'sss a good defense on your part, but how about this? We too, the Coldbloodss, have been at work for awhile. I mysself have sssearched many of the landss this continent has to offer. Sso, here I stumble upon a land I can visssualize as a perfect home for all my dying brotherssss and ssissterss back in the wetlands. You remember that place, the one filled with disssease and revolting substancesss in the sso called _fresh-watersss_. I can finally give to them what they gave me……….a home, a permanent home. I have found such a place, and I'm not going to misss the chance of saving my kind. I bet you had help from your meerkat friendsss to help you with these tunnels anyways, becaussse aren't aardvarkss the kind of animalsss who "_dig"_ burrows." Joka said.

Vigumu stared at the ground, hiding his fear from the python's eyes. Joka chuckled to himself, knowing he had the better point of view in the case.

"We didn't know you were

"If you didn't dig these fascinating and legendary tunnels, then perhaps the meerkats could be more of service than you." Bomoa said from behind Joka. Joka's eyes lit up, now having a better idea.

"Well, the good newsss Vigumi iss that we won't kill you or your little group you've got here. We don't do all of that ugly work you probably hear ssso many rumorss about. It just isn't moral." Joka explained.

"What of the bad news?" A female aardvark asked softly. Just as she had said this, a young aardvark panicked under pressure and ran towards an exit, crying as he did so.

" Weupe wait!" The aardvark's mother cried out in horror as her son climbed up to the nearest exit, unaware that Rakibu was still outside.

A sickening thud was heard from the surface above, followed by a loud yelp.

"Ahhhh!" Little Weupe yelled. The aardvarks stood in horror at the incident that had just occurred. Weupe came crashing back down, having been knocked aside by Rakibu's claws. When Weupe got up, a serious head wound was visible over his left eyebrow.

"Hey, you can't hurt the young ones." Fundi said as he stepped out from the crowd and attempted slashed Joka's eye with his sharp digging claws.

Joka retreated back in surprise, but picked himself up and wiped his eye clean of debris. He continued to shake himself free of debris, until he saw himself clean.

"Well, your son didn't let me finish. The bad newss iss, none of you can go back up the ssurface again, not here anyway. There's too much at risssk." Joka said.

"But you promised you wouldn't…...!" Weupe's mother was cut short.

"Again, your ssson didn't let me finish. I said I couldn't kill any of you, not show a little disscipline here and there." Joka hissed. The aardvarks stared in disbelief and sadly knelt their heads down.

Luckily, Weupu recovered quickly, and soon scuttled back to his mother Shukrani. However, the brief joy was cut short.

"First things first, we're going to have to get back to the Gloomy Galleon, and make sure all of the aardvarks get there without being seen. Rakibu can be our eyes on the surface. We'll make use of the tunnels to lead us back to Nyonge_._" Bomoa whispered to Joka, who nodded. As the aardvarks marched inside of their tunnels, Fundi looked to the ceiling, where Joka was currently slithering.

"Why are you doing this, leading us as if we were stray bison lost in the tundra. Just who exactly are you?!" Fundi shouted as best he could from his small mouth. At first, all was silent. After a couple of seconds though, a menacing, but soothing voice, began to descend upon the aardvarks, as if spirits were circling around them.

"_When the Devil is too busssy  
And death iss sstill at his shrine  
They call on me by name you sssee  
Joka, it's your time to shine_

_To the Gentlemen I'm Missss Fortune  
To the Ladiess I'm Ssir Prize  
But call me by any name  
Any way it's all the ssame_

_I'm the frog without a fly  
I'm the mourner without a sssigh  
I'm the sserpent that hopes it rained  
I'm the vengeance to be gained  
I'm conniving, I ssspeak lip  
It's that sssting, like a nip  
I'm the shadow of the sssavannah  
Makes you curve like a banana  
And it'ss sso eassy when you're evil  
This is the life, you ssee  
The __**Devil**__ decides to ssmile at me  
I do it all because I'm evil  
And I do it all for __**you and me**__  
Your tearssss are all the pay I'll ever need." _Joka sang in a nicely paced menacing manner, giving a serious smile to his two followers and aardvarks down in the ground below. Joka slithered through the holes and tunnels of the underground, and slid back up the surface as he continued to head forward. Every menacing strike he gave downwards avoided by the frightened aardvarks.

"_I'm the fear that keeps you awake  
I'm the black sspot on your palm  
I'm that marvelouss handsome snake  
I'm that anxious that ssteals your calm  
A mammal'ss agonizing tart  
I'm the lead python in the fight  
A sslimy drool?, no I'm ssmart!_

_I look forward to the night……._

_And…….it'ss sso eassy when you're evil  
This is the life, you see  
The __**Devil**__ decidess to ssmile at me  
I do it all because I'm evil  
And I do it all for __**you and me**__  
Your tearssss are all the pay I'll __**ever**__ need!" _Joka sang happily with his coils curving across the grass blades. All of his followers cheeredfor his singing, and Joka bowed his neck as a reply, tongue flickering as he did so. Fundi and the other aardvarks were quiet and frightened, all worried about what was to become of these lands, and hoping it wasn't the alst time they'll see it.

"Mom, are we going to be alright?" Weupe asked, wound abroad. His mother looked down and sighed.

"Just be sure to eat your ants as we go along." She said with a reassuring smile. The brief moment of humor was cut short by Joka.

"Alright fellow friends, our next sstop will be our little wetland. I'm sure fourteen is not the number I counted in the beginning, so I'll have to ask one of you two to ssstay behind and give one last ssearch. So, who will it be?"Joka hissed. The two monitors guarding the aardvarks bumped their heads when he said this, Rakibu on the ground and Bomoa on the ceiling.

"I'd give it a good search if you do it Bomoa." Rakibu said.

"What a way to end the day." Bomoa said to his best friend up on the surface.

"Hush up Bomoa, and I won't tell Giva your little secret when we get back because I don't want to hear your squabbling for the rest of the trip." Rakibu said, his voice heard loud and clear from below.

"Hey, I licked that toad because you dared me too." Bomoa said in disgust.

"Of _course_ you did, you're such an honest scale-bag………." Rakibu said sarcastically.

"Fine, I'll do it myssself. You two go on ahead!" Joka exclaimed.

**Meanwhile…**

With the winds picking up speed, it was even tougher to reach the wetlands, Nyonge's domain and the reptile territory. For any hornbill, it might have been called a quits, but for Zazu, it was anything but. The loyal majordomo made his way through the blistering winds with his personal assistant, Gopher, accompanying him.

"We're almost there Gopher, and soon we'll reach the so called Gloomy Galleon." Zazu said, with dismay in his voice. The hornbill was having problems flying as the wind blew through his feathers at an alarming velocity.

"Zazu sir, why don't you fly a bit lower? The ground here is getting soggy, so we must be close." Gopher said with difficulty moving through the water. He successfully made a small step, but instantly tripped on a large unseen boulder.

"Oh Gopher, why can't you at least have a bit of pride in your walks, you move like a tortoise with fungus on its shell." Zazu said. The hornbill began to descend upon the mushy terrain below him, only to suffer Gopher's fate.

"Agghhh!" Zazu slipped and fell into the murky mud, lifting his face out of the mud to let some of it drip off of his beak. Zazu saw Gopher smirk at him.

"So, what was that about fungus on shells sir?" Gopher asked with his feet slowly sinking into the deep mud. Zazu picked himself up with his wings to shake his feathers dry, only to trip again and have his entire head fall straight into the soggy mud. The hornbill was pulled out by Gopher, and laughed to see Zazu's eyelids splattered in mud.

Zazu forced his eyes open, and looked around. The trees around him were stumpy, but the lake visible ahead was actually quite enormous. Despite the Gloomy Galleon's limited amount of water (Or pure water for that matter), the lake around the small hills of land was stretched to absurdity.

Small ponds were formed near the Gloomy Galleon's center. It was there that bulrushes, reeds, water lilies, and sedges sprouted in a colorful, yet demeaning, manner. The climate was bitter and cold, so both Gopher and Zazu shivered as they stood frozen on the mud, feet shivering.

"Oh, what forsaken place has his majesty sent us to? It's almost as if he knew it'd be like this. Well, now we know why his second in command was his first choice." Zazu said to Gopher, who raised an eyebrow.

"Okay, his second and _third_ commands were his first choices." Zazu said with a droopy beak. Gopher stood still and responded.

"If by _third_ in command you mean _you_, then that was very well said sir." Gopher chuckled. Zazu shared the chuckle, but instantly turned back into his old-self the second he looked up at the sky: nervous and rushed.

"Oh my, my, the sun is setting, and I definitely don't want to end up in a place like this at night!" Zazu said with fright, and flew straight towards the large hill top, surrounded by the wetland's quantity of water.

"Whatever you say sir, but uh, only one problem." Gopher said, his head knelt down and his left foot tracing the mud beneath him, obviously embarrassed. Zazu turned to his assistant and padded his foot on the ground, waiting for Gopher to confess his petty problem.

"I can't swim sir." Gopher said with his head held high, and his chest puffed out.

"Well, you'll just have to wait here until you do learn how to swim, then perhaps you can join me." With that remark, Zazu flapped his wings and flew off.

"Yes sir, right away sir, I'll just stand here for sentry, you know, just in case any predator decides to jump out or surprise attack sir, sir?!" Gopher called out.

"Whatever!" Zazu yelled from the distance, approaching Nyonge's keep.

"Nyonge has to have some sort of gateway somewhere, oh there it is!" Zazu said as he spotted a stack of bones, all pointing to a small stretch of grass descending from the water, made to be used as an entrance. It was there that two gruff tortoises were marching slowly from one side of the entrance to the other.

Zazu landed in the middle of the two hard shelled reptiles, trying to appear dominant and fearless. The two tortoises eyed him suspiciously, and right away began to question him.

"Are you from the Pride Lands hornbill?" One of the guards asked, sniffing his tail feathers. Zazu took his feathers in his hands and shielded them from the reptile's snout and quickly answered.

"Yes!"

"Oh, you must be that ambassador King Scar had advised us about, come right in." The tortoise said, now appearing friendly and smooth. Zazu looked flabbergasted at the title they had given him.

"Well, I am flattered. I don't know if I should be called an ambassador as much as a majordomo but I suppose a little respect is in order." Zazu said with his right wing stroking his chest of embarrassment.

"It's fine, just enter." The tortoise said, having ignored the poor bird. Zazu flew ahead, and was surprised as to how condensed the hill was with trees. From a distance, the hill top seemed flat, but now that he was up close, Zazu saw it wasn't plain grass he had seen, but tree tops.

"What a way to be living." The hornbill gazed at all the vultures perched on the tree branches, eyeing him suspiciously as he glided steadily up towards the path. The vultures began whispering to one another, speaking about strange errands…….

"…that the one who King Scar sent over…."

"….might have to ask Nyonge what we should do…."

" ……no way the Coldbloods can hide now…."

"Do you think we should ready the trap?"

Zazu felt uncertain if anybody expected him to arrive, and was he really in the right place? Only time will tell…………………

"Hello ambassador of the Pride Lands, very _nice_ to meet you." A puny praying mantis emerged from the water below.

"Hello to you too, I am Zazu, King Scar's majordomo, but ambassador will suit me well, and you would be…?" Zazu waited for an answer.

"I am Udhi, but you can just call me The Medic. I am the healer of the Gloomy Galleon, and serve Nyonge well." The praying mantis responded.

"Oh, you are in Nyonge's service? Well can you escort me to him; I'm in a bit of a rush to return home." Zazu said.

"Well what seems to be the hurry ambassador, there is no need to leave so quickly, yes?" Udhi made his way towards Nyonge's court as an escort.

"Well I'm obliged to count every animal resident. It's been that way for generations and I can't decline my duties now." Zazu explained with steady flapping.

Udhi continued to climb over vines and fallen trees in a jiffy, seeming to be in a rush. The small insect didn't look back, and Zazu was getting curious if Udhi even knew Nyonge.

The hornbill caught up to the mantis, cornering him with a precise landing on a large open hill.

"Alright, if you have been listening, I'm in a bit of a hurry. So either lead me to the crocodile or scurry over and tell him I couldn't come in this weather." As Zazu's temper elevated, the heavy and ominous wind cooled the hornbill's hot-headed attitude in a breeze. With another look around the terrain, Zazu felt intimidated by the largely oversized trees and pools all around the hill top he was standing on.

He chose to trust his instincts and leave, but before a flap from his wings could be made, a booming voice called out from behind.

"Oh, no need to leave ambassador. We're just getting started." The palm leaves from behind, acting as shady curtains, were slowly moved aside by chameleons to reveal a large Nile crocodile. The croc was sitting proudly on an equally enormous tree stump, and was surrounded with all kinds of reptile species, all snickering at the blue "ambassador", including an obnoxious looking jackal.

'_That explains the trees' _Zazu thought to himself, looking at all of the lizards climbing down from the branches overhead to rejoice, and mock the hornbill.

"Banana Beak!"

"Fool!"

"You'll be fed to Woga, ha, ha, he!" The obnoxious jackal began to cackle at Zazu, while Nyonge licked his snout clean of his early dinner: gophers!!

'_Good thing Gopher stayed behind!!!_' Zazu gulped in embarrassment and hidden fear. The mighty Nile crocodile sneered at the hornbill, sighing as the so called "The Medic" crawled up towards his master.

"Nyonge, _the ambassador Scar sent you is __**here**__, shall I tell Bomoa to go around the pools. You know, because of……………." _Nyonge was stomped on by a heavy front claw. Nyonge glared at the green puny insect, and in his loud booming voice addressed.

"Do not begin to squabble you pesky insect. Do your duty and tell my _employees_ to go meet me in the pools later. We wouldn't want them to interfere with our guest, now would we?" Nyonge said with a comforting smile, hiding his little secrets.

"Yes well, I don't mean to be a bother; it's just that King Scar simply wanted to give you a plain and simple business proposal. You don't have to agree, as it is actually……….." Zazu tried to catch up on his breath, and noticed he had all the time in the world since every animal in Nyonge's court simply waited for the bird to finish, all eyebrows raised with patience.

"Okay, the deal is: _if_ you happen to have any spare water sources nearby, King Scar will truly value your cause if you'd happen to remove several of your beaver dams to share some of that water with the Pride Lands." Zazu fiddled his feathers, seeing Nyonge's entire group of followers gasp in anguish. The obnoxious jackal sitting near Nyonge's tail was not laughing, but sneering. The chameleons were changing from purple to pink, all catapulting their tongues at Zazu in a rage.

Zazu was beginning to back away, until Nyonge's furious voice began to play words.

"What! You expect me to share my only source of clean water to your shriveled poodle bunches of hyenas?!" Nyonge exclaimed, going as far as to step down from his "throne".

"Yes well, as I said: there was never a guarantee you would agree." Zazu began to step back from the approaching land lord, seeing **this** as a good time to flee. He didn't get very far though…………….

"Now hold on a moment ambassador, why **you** assume you should leave without giving us some more information!" Chewa, one of the vultures, swooped down to block Zazu's path. Nyonge stepped forward, and growled impatiently.

"I don't know what to say, King Scar never told me you were living in these conditions. I take no blame for his actions; I'm only a messenger after all. Please don't eat me!" Zazu shielded his head from Nyonge. The Nile crocodile simply laughed in amusement, then hushed up.

"No, we won't eat you. After all, King Scar did leave us here to expand his kingdom. It was a good idea to start, but one problem though. I don't see any land from this hill that we haven't conquered. How long does your King Scar plan to keep us out here?" Nyonge asked.

"Two weeks more." Zazu whispered. Nyonge stepped back in an uproar, hitting the jackal unconscious as he did so.

"Two more weeks? Zira the lioness stated our shift here was over. Why King Scar would dare keep us here any longer is beyond question!" Nyonge boomed.

"It seems you were misinformed because Zira never had the right to converse with King Scar's workers." Zazu replied back.

"Hmmm, interesting fact you have there. Well then, describe this Zira to me. Is she a tad brown on the fur? Does she have more edge to her appearance than one lioness could pocess? Does she make her points clear without her having to repeat herself?" Nyonge asked.

"Wow, that does sound like her……………………….oops." Zazu realized his mistake.

"Ha, so you admit Zira **did** tell master Nyonge his duties. King Scar is the one who is misunderstood. We deserve a place in your little circle of life…..that is why we have been supporting him!" Udhi scurried to Zazu's feet.

Chatter was increasing all over Nyonge's court, all about bargaining for taking residence in the Pridelands.

"That would be our proposal!"

"Yeah, when can we live in the Pride Lands."

"Maybe if we give them half our water, we can become full term residents!"

"No you fool; we make them beg for the water. Our reward would be the paradise that is the Pride Lands!"

"We're suffering enough as it is. We can't afford another loss of water."

"We're decreasing faster than the winds are traveling now!"

The entire court began to bicker with one another, each proposing an idea to one another. Nyonge signaled to his assistant to cease the hill of talking.

"Eeeenough!" Udhi exclaimed at the top of his small vocal cords. All became shushed in a moment.

"Everybody quiet, the ambassador still has something to answer." Nyonge said. Zazu stirred a little, and then replied.

"So, how can I put this sudden outburst behind us and start again?" The majordomo asked. Before Nyonge could answer, the obnoxious jackal behind Nyonge had regained conscience, and spotted a moving shadow hidden in the bushes.

"Look, secret spy, behind you!" The jackal yelped, hiding behind Nyonge. All of the crocodiles in the water below moved into action, and brought out a small animal from the nearby bushes.

"Gopher?!!" Zazu exclaimed in shock, as well as everybody else. Gopher waved a nervous hello to everybody.

"Hello sir, Nyonge your land lordship." Gopher said with a small bow. Nyonge was unimpressed, and was even more furious than before.

"Ah, so you had spies sent over as well. That does it, you aren't returning home. If King Scar wishes you back, he's going to have to beg for my mercy. Nobody plays coy with me!" Nyonge exclaimed in his deep and menacing voice. Zazu and Gopher were grabbed by the vultures Chewa and Choyo. Being unable to wriggle free, Zazu could only plea.

"Please sire, you are making a mistake. We aren't trying to kill you off or anything of the sort. This isn't what it looks like!" Zazu explained. Nyonge however, would have none of it.

"You show up and disgrace my work. You ponder about your allegiance to that slime-ball King Scar. What's worse, you plan to take what little we have by making your lands seem poor. Take him away, and make sure our ambassador enjoys his stay with Woga!" Nyonge ordered. Chewa and Choyo nodded, taking off over the hill and through the trees.

"No, this isn't right, why would King Scar hire such a tyrannical guard to his territory?" Zazu asked himself. Gopher looked over to his partner, and gave him a "point" on his wing as they were carried away.

"What is it Gopher, what else do you plan to ruin today aside from your poorly timed entries?" Zazu asked.

"Sir, who's Woga?" As Gopher asked this, Chewa and Choyo laughed above him, knowing Woga was Nyonge's pet: an oversized snakehead.

"Hey guys, could I tag along. I know who the ambassador is!" A young brown lion cub came running below the vultures, and it made the cruising buzzards angry.

"Malka, why don't you come visit them after they're secured in their cages?" Chewa asked from above. Malka stopped, and decided it was fair.

"Okay, call me when I can visit!" With that, the cub allowed the vultures to depart towards the "vine forest", a large hill containing a large amount of trees, where Zazu and Gopher would spend the night.

Malka trotted back to Nyonge's court, where the large Nile crocodile ordered the chameleons to play a soothing tune for his worries. The chameleons happily used their tongues and mouths to blow and play the wooden logs, which served as flutes. Malka heard the music and was surprised at how many reptiles were laughing, with one another.

"Nyonge, sir, those two that you sent to the vine forest are innocent. They aren't conspiring against you!" Malka exclaimed right away. Nyonge frowned at Malka's sudden outburst, and turned to him angrily.

"Little Malka, you can't possibly know those two traitorous scum, they live in Pride Rock, far from here." Nyonge explained, with assistant Udhi looking as well.

"But sir, Zazu helped me find my way home when I got lost, in Pride Rock." Malka continued.

"The ambassador helped you? You never told me you've been to Pride Rock!" Udhi proclaimed. As the music continued to bring relief to the denizens, it failed miserably for Nyonge, who was now frustrated to the point of despair.

"Enough of this confusion! Unless King Scar wants those two to be released, they will stay under our watchful eye. And just to prove to you what happens if they escape, I will clearly demonstrate." Nyonge chuckled after he finished his statement, and winked at a nearby tortoise guard.

The tortoise nodded, and went behind the playing chameleons, all seated on the log instrument. Nyonge chuckled again, knowing this was going to be most amusing for Malka.

"Young cub, these sorry excuses of musicians fail to captivate me in happiness, so they are the perfect guinea pigs for my point of view. This is your last play lizards!" With that comment, Nyonge pointed a claw at the tortoise. The tortoise then pushed the log into a pile of leaves seated in the center of the hilltop. Unfortunately, the leaves were actually covering a small hole underneath, for the hill had a hollow opening near the center.

The chameleons screamed as they fell, and one even attempted to hold onto the edge, only for the tortoise to violently step on his hands. The chameleons landed into a medium-sized pool beneath the surface, and were in more shock.

The pool housed Woga, Nyonge's favorite pet. It was this pet that publicly devoured the small chameleons inside the pool water. Everyone cheered for the hungry snakehead, and laughed at it's victims.

With Nyonge's secret viewing area behind his "throne", Malka stared in fright at the sight below. Udhi and the obnoxious jackal laughed their jaws open as the last chameleon was eaten alive, followed by three painful sounding crunches.

"Get the point now young cub?" Nyonge asked. Malka slowly nodded, then gave a long gulp as he walked away.

With one last look at Nyonge's court, he saw that a group of boas quickly replaced the ill-fated chameleons.

Nyonge's smile confirmed their music was "better".

**Back in the Pride Lands………………**

"Hurry Kula, the winds are really rough!" Nala called out to her friend, who struggled to push through the chilling breeze. Both cubs continued to run across the savannah, trying to find Mheetu.

"I told you Mheetu takes hide-and-seek too seriously. He always hides in the shadiest of places." Nala spoke to Kula.

"Well why didn't you just smack me out of it? You know, like you always do?!" Kula called out. Nala stopped for awhile.

"I never smack you!" Nala proclaimed.

"Well it couldn't have hurt if you tried." Kula said, catching up at last.

"Uh, I'm pretty sure it would have. More pain for me than pain for you." Nala replied. Kula stomped onto the ground.

"Well Chumvi's a real big help. He hasn't even returned to help us look for Mheetu." Kula snapped. Both cubs looked all around them, searching for any sign of Mheetu or Chumvi.

As if it were a reply to Kula's pouting, the two young lionesses saw Chumvi calling out to them from a large pot hole. Nala ran to her friend, again leaving Kula behind.

"Chumvi where were you, I thought you were looking for my brother." Nala said frustrated.

"I was, and I found him!" Chumvi proclaimed. Nala looked calm now, drawing a sigh of relief.

"Great, where is he?" Nala asked. Chumvi pointed behind him: the aardvarks' burrows. Nala gave Chumvi a look of 'are you kidding me', and collapsed near the tunnel's entryway from exhaustion. Kula caught up to Nala again, and saw mheetu's tracks on the dirt, leading towards the burrows.

"You can't be serious. Mheetu may love hiding, but even I have my limits. I would be scared stiffness in there. We can't see a thing!" Kula exclaimed with a nervous sigh. Nala frowned at Kula for her cowardice.

"Yes it could be dangerous in there, but Mheetu depends on me. I'm going in after him. Meet you back later Kula." Nala said as she entered the tunnels, but then saw a strange figure walking out of the tunnel before her.

"Ahhhhh!" The shady figure yelled at the cubs, making all three jump back in fright. The lemur collapsed beneath them.

"Julien, is that you?" Chumvi asked from behind Nala. Chumvi gave an embarrassed smile to a puzzled Nala.

"I think it is me, let me check, hang on a moment……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………okay yeah it is me, only I have a crown on my head." Julien said as he cradled his new crown made out of the savannah's dry grass, and different gourd shells.

"Okay? We were looking for Mheetu, is he in there?" Kula asked. Julien's eyes were wide with terror.

"Oh, I forgot about the others! They're all hidden inside waiting for you to go and find them. They sent their king to go and find you because it's getting stuffy in there. So as an offer, will you help them?" Julien asked the three cubs. They all shrugged and entered the tunnels. Nala gave one last look behind her.

"You sure they're in there?" Nala asked.

"Oh sure, make a few left turns here and there, you'll catch up." Julien said. Seeing Nala nod and enter made Julien smile reassuringly.

"Now with them out of the way, I can go and see King Scar at last!" Julien exclaimed, running towards the nearby Pride Rock. Julien climbed rapidly up the pathway to the lionesses' den, tip-toeing across to make sure he didn't cause a stir, and then climbed the final steps needed to reach the king's private den.

"Yes, it is here, my dream of seeing my idol in person. This is the seventh best moment of my life!" Julien exclaimed, then looking up to his scalp.

"If I am to make an entrance, this crown is useless; after all we don't want to make the guy mad now right?" Julien grabbed his poorly made crown and threw it aside.

As the ring-tailed lemur walked into the shadowy den, he began to notice the eerie decorations in the cave's interior. Skulls of past hunts were neatly placed side-to-side on a large pedestal, with different designs clawed onto the foreheads. Then, near the end of the den lay an enormous water buffalo skull, with a long jagged scar over the skull's left eye socket.

"Okay, I guess the king is a very physically fit cat. I can relate to that, I can relate." Julien's happiness was drifting away, due to the den's malevolent atmosphere.

"Okay, he's not home. I'll just get out of here Ahhhh!" Julien came face to face with the big cheese himself.

"Well, looks as if I have company." King Scar stood over the frightened lemur, staring down on his shriveling body. Julien waved a hello.

"Hello." Julien said in a choked whisper. The dark lion stared at him with no visible emotion.

"I like what you've done with the place." Julien said. King Scar smiled.

"Yes well, I try to be creative." Scar replied. From behind Julien's shoulder, Scar spotted an unusual sight.

"Who is this, your friend?" Scar asked, referring to the playful cub behind Julien. Julien turned around, eyes widening as he did so.

"Oh no!" The cub Mheetu tackled Julien, knocking him to the floor and knowing on his tail.

"You do know that young males aren't allowed in these lands right?" Scar told the pinned lemur, who looked up in fear.

"Yes well, I am new here. Plus, I heard from these vultures saying how inspiring you were as a leader, and asked your majordomo where you were, so here I am!" Julien exclaimed. Scar brought his paw down on Mheetu's tail gently, and brought him up to his face to examine the giggling cub. Mheetu playfully swatted Scar's whiskers, making the lion king agitated.

"Whosever cub this is, you have to tell them he is not welcome here. I already gave warnings to the rouges." Scar explained as he placed Mheetu roughly onto Julien's lap.

"But King Scar, what of the help you can give to me? Can I be of assistance in anyway to make up my rude entrance? Maybe then, you can give me directions to Zuba's pride." Julien said with rushed lisps.

"I don't help outsiders, but I do welcome them. Maybe you can fill in for Zazu today. Perhaps later, I can send you home, along with your cub friend." Scar said as he turned around, ready to head back to his "throne" for a nap. Julien raised his hand for a chance to speak.

"Um excuse me, I thought this one belonged to your kingdom?" Julien said as he held out the wriggling Mheetu. Once he heard this, King Scar flung around in a rapid motion, now distressed.

"This cub is of **my** pride, but that can't be." King Scar said. King Julien continued to struggle with the holding of Mheetu.

"Yes, i-it is ttruuue. I don't know if you've noticed but this uh......little Mheetu, is the son of uh............Saffo, no sarfi, uh, l wait, let me think, let me think uhh." Julien continued to bang his head to remember the lioness's name.

"Sarafina?" King Scar quoted.

"Yes, I'm sure you know her, she's tall and shiny with the coating, you know." King Julien let Mheetu drop to the ground, and crossed his arms.

"Oh don't be alarmed, I'll have a chat with Sarafina. Thank you for this information, I was unaware that one of my followers disobeyed the new laws I've put out. Hopefully you can resume living your pathetic life for all I wonder, just as long as you go make yourself useful and count the animals that Zazu has overdue." King Scar said in a gibber, walking towards the exit. King Julien ran towards him.

"Hey wait, but what about me. Can't you just tell me where my home is?" Julien asked. Scar turned to him.

"Those who are loyal, get rewarded." King Scar trotted down to the plains. Julien shushed his trap, and stared at Mheetu in an angered form. On the plains, Nala, Kula, Chumvi, Maurice, Rocio, and Mort made their way back to Pride Rock, encountering Scar along the way.

"Oh, hello King Scar. Good day huh?" Chumvi said with a smile. King Scar didn't return the smile, he just stared at him with discomfort. Scar looked behind Chumvi, spotting Nala.

"Oh, Nala," He began ", you never told me you had a brother."

Nala was stunned at Scar's statement, remembering to keep Mheetu's existence a secret.

"N-nn-no." Nala stuttered. Scar raised an eyebrow.

"Well, could you inform me of your mother's whereabouts?" King Scar asked. Nala's eyes widened.

"Mom's not going to be punished is she?" Nala asked. King Scar chuckled at his, but resumed walking to the lionesses' den.

"We'll see." King Scar answered, growling at the lemurs staring at him, which petrified Mort solid. Nala knelt her head in shame, seeing Sarafina's fate clearly.

'_How could I be so irresponsible_?" Nala asked herself. Chumvi helped carry Mort on his back, but had difficulty lifting him up because of his unmoving muscles. Kula approached Nala and lay beside her.

"What are you going to do?" Kula asked. Nala thought for a brief second, and stood up on all fours.

"I need to find my brother." Nala answered, and ran to Pride Rock, with Kula and Chumvi following.

The three lemurs stayed behind.

"What do you think happen, you'd think a cute guy like Mheetu could stay out of trouble." Rocio said, continually picking Mort up with her extended arms. Maurice stepped forward a bit, and saw what looked like a pile of useless blades of grass: blades of grass shaped like a hat.

The aye-aye picked up the hat, but saw that it wasn't a hat at all, but a crown fit for a........................................................

'_King Julien!' _Maurice thought in a frustrated temper.

**The story is back! Thank you for your patience on this story's return, and I'm glad to see I have new fans reading. I'm glad I found a song fit for Joka the python, Voltaire's "When You're Evil". I also decided to tweak with the song's lyrics, so it wouldn't be a useless copy and paste section. Just in case.......................... **

**Disclaimer:**

**I do not own the song "When you're Evil" by Voltaire.**

** This has been a tough month for me, with the Trojan viruses, and the loss of my chapters. That was just the start of my problems, but I won't take your time any further. ****Kingdom see, Kingdom go** **is now fresh in my mind and I thought the story out through to the end. With chapter eleven done, I can now relax knowing I updated, and I hope the story's readers are thrilled with its return.**


	12. The Den

It has returned. What a wait huh?

Hopefully this short chapter will be an intro for things to come.

I'm sorry for the dilemmas, but from here on out, I'll concentrate on the completion of the story.

Sorry for it's length, I was hoping to give you a little preview of part 2 for Kingdom see Kingdom go.

**Chapter 12 – The Den**

With most animals, instinct usually refers to saving their own skins regardless of any others. Some betray their species to evade an oncoming stampede; some even leave their family members for dead in small situations. Regardless, there is that small chance of hope in each one of them to make a decision based on their conscience, such as…

"Okay, I think I might have been a little harsh when I called you a drooling rug of a baby, but if you'd keep quiet, maybe I'll let you chew on my tail again okay." Julien the ring-tailed lemur said trough small whispers, all in vain to make little Mheetu beside him, stop crying.

Mheetu cooed and wept into his paws, all because King Julien kept shoving him away whenever Mheetu wanted to play. Julien tried stroking him, but ended up with claw marks on his arm. That didn't work out well then.

"Okay fine, tell you what," King Julien began, seeing Mheetu's tear soaked face look up at him ,"I'll let you have a piggy back ride on the way home eh?"

Mheetu stared at the lemur, not getting the message. The cub smiled and prepared to pounce on the unsuspecting king. Mheetu circled around Julien, growling lowly. At last, the pale cub decided to pounce.

"Ah, ah, ah, don't go sneaking up on me like that you little ball of furriness. I promised you a piggy back ride, so all I have to do is find a pig for you to ride on. Let's see, if I were a snorting tank of stinky mud where would I be?" King Julien said, tilting his head from left to right.

"Okay the piggy-back ride isn't going to happen, but I'll tell you this: I promise to take you to better home, because I know what King Scar has in store for you. The last thing you'd like to see in this world is a vast desert in your direction with no end, ending your chances of ever becoming king yourself. Sad isn't it, so I've decided to take you, yes you, under my wing and show you all about the duties a king has to endure. Why do animals say that, _under my wing_, I mean hello not all of us are birds, ha, ha. Do you understand what I'm trying to say or said?" King Julien asked his new friend.

Mheetu was sitting in contempt, not actually interested in anything the lemur had been saying. For the most part, he had been grooming himself a lot, hoping to impress his sister later today.

"Nala!" Mheetu cried out in joy, seeing his older sister climbing up Pride Rock to reach Scar's den. Kula and Chumvi were joining her, and Mheetu felt no different. Before Mheetu could leap forward, Juien held him back by the tail. Nervously, the lemur shuddered in anxiety.

Scar's den was cold. There was no other word for it. The cavern walls were covered in claw marks, serving as a symbol of new order. Nala shuddered at one of the cave's claw marks, for it was crossing out one of her paintings she and Simba had made using Rafiki's fruit preserves.

_Simba….._

That name still held a purpose in Nala's life, no matter what anybody told her. Getting over it would be like tripping yourself over on the run from a dangerous predator, and never getting up. That name was what kept the young lioness going.

"Nala look!" A voice broke Nala's thoughts in two, making her remember what she had come up here for.

"Wha…Did you find him!" Nala called out. Kula nodded up ahead, pointing her paw towards an elongated monochromatic ringed-tail sticking out from one of the eye sockets of a Cape buffalo skull. The skull began to rattle loudly, and and King Julien peeked out from behind.

"Well, look who's here. It's our beloved King Julien!" Maurice exclaimed from behind. His expression and tone was that of relief and anxiety. The two lemurs confronted each other in the most uncomfortable method Julien had ever gone through.

"So, you led us away so you could meet King Scar huh. I thought I smelled a royal mess. Mort and I found your…..uh, _crown_." Maurice said through a whisper. King Julien's eyes widened along with gritted teeth.

"Ohhh, _so sorry about that Maurice_." Julien whispered back. Rocio, Mort, and Nala approached Julien with wonder, for they thought King Scar might have thought him fit for a meal. On the contrary however, the lemur did not have a single hair standing up on its end.

"So you actually talked with the king, Julien?" Rocio asked with surprise, for she had heard tales about King Scar before. She had heard that King Scar loved the thrill of hunting, the activity he had always wanted to do with his father Ahadi. It was incredible that a lion like Scar would pass up on such a feisty primate such as Julien.

"Oh yes, and he wasn't anything like Nala said he would be." Julien answered. Nala scoffed in annoyance as Mheetu came running up to her.

"It's not like _you_ could speak to him. Scar never bothers to talk with the lionesses, so how is it that he spent a few minutes of his life with you?" Nala challenged. All of Julien's lemur friends then turned to their de facto leader, waiting for an answer. Julien stuttered a little bit, but only a little, because Nala had already begun to talk.

"Look Julien, I don't know if you haven't realized. King Scar does not want competition for the throne," Nala explained," With Mheetu noticed, I know king Scar would want to banish my brother!"

"Yes, and it is _precisely_ that reason that I have decided to amscray out of here with Ni to give Mheetu here a better life. Don't you see, I wanted to correct my error with an act of gratitude for letting us stay here in your beautiful pridelands." King Julien explained, holding out his arms in a _presto _fashion as a last effort to make peace with the young lioness in front of him.

Julien seemed to be an animal with no intention of harm, but he wasn't fooling anybody.

"What!" Kula and Chumvi exclaimed.

"Hey you! You all know not to be in the king's den." A raspy voice sounded from behind. Shenzi the hyena and her followers came waddling up to the smaller animals. Julien shivered in anxiety as Meka sniffed the lemurs. Nala, Chumvi, Mheetu, and Kula were cornered by Ed and Banzai. Rocio jumped in shock, and landed right into Julien's open arms.

"Oh, why thank you Julien. I didn't know you defended females at the sight of danger." Rocio said with a strong blush visible on her cheeks. Mort hopped on top of Rocio's belly.

"Can you defend me _too_?" Mort asked in his cutesy voice. Julien gagged strongly and let his two passengers drop to the floor.

"Okay, I can tolerate Rocio, but you Mort. You are a disgusting disease ridden virus with legs!" Julien shrieked. The hyenas leapt back at Julien's ranting. Mort simply chuckled, showing his iconic front tooth.

"Well, looks like someone forgot their manners eh Shenzi? Don't you know that one must show respect in front of the alpha female in a pack fur ball?" Banzai ranted. Julien blew a raspberry in disbelief.

"As if you are any good queen I've ever seen." Julien said with a sincere smile.

"Why you ring-tailed piece of carnage! I don't see you owning the flesh hardened teeth in your mouth. Those tuxedo flightless birds were right. You are a conceited waste of a fur coat!" Shenzi blurted out. Nala leaped in front of the two confronting mammals and gave Shenzi a puppy-eyed look.

"Look, I know jumping in here was a leap of faith, but why aw you thweatening our wittle bodies awound?" Nala asked in a way of faked innocence, almost immediately followed by snickers and giggles coming from her friends behind her.

"Look kid, Scar may want to keep you alive, but I don't have to do what he commands when he ain't looking, alright sweet face." Shenzi said with a growl at the end of her statement. Nala growled back at her, and soon both were locked eye to eye in fury. Shenzi snapped at Nala, making her jolt back in surprise.

"Ha, ha, ha, ha!" Banzai and Ed laughed from behind and gave Shenzi a snicker. Nala breathed heavily before she got to her feet to frown at them. Her tilted head was then dragged behind her to face Julien.

"Look, how about I skadoodle while you settle out your differences. It's okay I won't be nosey." Julien smiled. Nala scoffed and walked past him towards the exit. Julien stayed still, then got back to his normal stature. Maurice, Mort, and Rocio walked up from behind.

"You really think you belong here you're majesty?" Maurice asked. Before Julien could answer, a voice hissed right beside him.

"Sure he belongs here, all lemurs do." Crumble the monitor hissed.


	13. Chapter 13 The Jungle

Chapter 13 – The Jungle

"So let me get this straight, you're a lion who won't eat a meerkat anytime soon, right?" Timon the meerkat asked from a safe distance on top of his warthog friend, Pumbaa. The carnivore on the other side nodded.

Timon then quickly became relaxed after the lion responded, and took a piece of bark from a tree, filled it with a scoopful of yesterday's brunch, and offered to his guests.

"Well in that case, care for some caterpillars? They're almost running out!" Timon offered to the sitting lion, slumped miserably over a log. Alex the lion had been escorted to a drier area of the jungle, along with his herbivore friends. The friends were currently helping themselves to a couple of fruits they brought along from Zuba's Domain, but the scruffy lion had but a fly on his plate. With a grumbling stomach, Alex turned to the meerkat beside him, and replied.

"Sure, I could use a pick-me-up." Alex said, grabbing a handful out of Timon's tree bark plate. With every crunch, Alex grimaced at the taste but was satisfied with the filling. He had never tried insects before, not counting the occasional weevil that crawled out of the sewers back in New York.

"This isn't half bad…..NO, wait, there it is!" Alex coughed and wheezed at the awful pricks the caterpillar had on its hide. The scruffy lion cub beside him laughed his head off.

"Ha, you couldn't last longer than I could when I had my first caterpillar!" The cub giggled on his backside, seeing Alex's reaction. Knowing an animal of his kind was right next to him, he attempted to make a good impression.

"Excuse me little guy, you're mocking an alpha male here, so watch where you point that comment, so yeah….take that." Alex replied. The young cub tilted his head only slightly in confusion.

"Um, alpha male? Wait! Do you mean king?" The cub asked. Alex shrugged, placing all four paws on the ground to pace like lions usually did.

"Yeah I guess so, and who am I chatting with here?" Alex asked as he approached his listener, pointing index fingers at him. The cub stood up straight and puffed out a heavy sigh of satisfaction, crossing his paw over his chest.

"Simba's the name, and you are?" The cub then turned towards Alex to lend a paw, putting him on the spotlight.

"It's Alex, alpha male of Zuba's Domain!" Alex proclaimed. Timon flinched at Alex's sudden outburst.

"Yeesh, with that voice, I'd figure you're better off with Zuba's symphony orchestra…ah, ha, ha, ha, ha….the orchestra, oh, I crack myself up." Timon said, flinging a tear of laughter out of his eye. From behind, Gloria the hippo triggered her zany giggle off, with Marty and Melman joining in.

"Yeah, and to think Alex dances instead of sings." Melman inquired. Pumbaa turned in surprise to the giraffe.

"He dances too?" Pumbaa asked. Mleman nodded and gave his 'Oh yeah!' look to the warthog.

"Alex has always been a dancer, but thinking about him singing leaves me flopping!" Gloria giggled again with in-between snorts and stutters. Timon scratched his chin with amusement.

"You don't say, you don't say. Must be that crazy hairdo! I mean only a gorilla can look at that lion without getting jealous. He'd say "Hey, I got more hair under my armpits then on your entire head alpha boy!", and I ain't _lion, ha, ha, ha_!" Timon laughed out loud with Alex's friends, who all tried to calm themselves, but with no success. Simba laughed as well, slapping the ground briefly with a paw.

"Ah, you'll get used to that….._Alpha Lion_." Simba said with a smug smile.

Pumbaa chuckled and decided to ask Alex a few questions….

"Hey, why do you travel with herbivores? Aren't they your prey?" Pumbaa asked, leaving Timon to join in.

"Hey, why do your buddies claim you to be a dancer, but haven't strutted it out?" Timon called out.

"Why are you here?" Simba asked from behind Alex, leaving Alex mute of all words and Pumbaa and Timon to eye him suspiciously.

"Yeah Alpha, where's your hakuna matata resort, somewhere in Tahiti or what?" Timon asked.

"Um, it's kind of hard to explain." Alex replied, however Marty responded as he chewed on a melon.

"We've been looking for a group of furry, party loving lemurs who disappeared yesterday. Say, you haven't seen anything have you?" Marty asked. The peculiar duo stood perplexed, for what in the vine swing was a lemur.

"I'm sorry, but uh, what was that again?" Pumbaa asked with his left hoof on his bottom lip. Timon scratched his head, appearing to be in deep thought. It was later discovered that all Timon was trying to do was search for lice in his head fur. He succeeded and quickly consumed the small insects.

"Oh sorry guys, unless "lemurs" are the monkeys that usually swing by these jungles, I'm afraid you don't have much help here. But we always love some good visitors, right Simba?" Timon nudged the cub next to him.

"Sure, you four are our guests, so you know you're in for a good time." Simba implied.

"Yeah, everyday here is a match made for the humblest of homes. So long as you stand down wind, we can show you how much fun you can have in a place like this." Timon said, pulling up a small log drum onto his lap. Timon began to beat the log with steady beats, to create a calm mood.

"Oh sorry guys, but we can't stay here for long. We really need to find our friends so we can return home; I mean we don't even know if they've made it across that desert out there." Melman the giraffe said.

"Well Timon, if their friends do happen to be in the desert, then perhaps we should let them leave?" Pumbaa asked. Timon stopped beating his log drum, set it aside, and began pacing.

"I guess you're right Pumbaa, after all, friends stick together to the end!" Timon proclaimed as he pulled Pumbaa and Simba to his side, all three of them laughing with joy. Marty looked at the sight, and felt guilty for King Julien's departure.

"Oh Gloria, I don't know if we can pull this off. I mean, when we began I was confident that we would find Julien in a blink, but now, I feel doubt." Marty said, with his face beginning to lose the little joy he had. Gloria, Melman, and Alex looked at Marty in shock; Marty was beginning to resemble his old self back in the zoo, gloomy and lost in spirit.

"Ah Marty, don't give up so easily. If we know Julien, Mort, and Maurice, they're probably sipping on some mango juice they made or something. Don't feel that all of the mishaps in our lives have been your fault, in fact, they've been good adventures thus far." Gloria said, with Timon, Pumbaa, and Simba looking on.

"Oh Timon. They really miss their friends. Oh, how can we help?" Pumbaa asked. Timon choked on a caterpillar he had just swallowed, and Simba helped squeeze it out by stretching his neck upwards.

"Pumbaa! What have I told you before? We can't just intervene with random lives; you first have to have an agreement with everybody." Timon protested with his arms to his sides and a left foot padding the ground. Pumbaa stared blankly at Timon, not moving for a couple of seconds, until…..

"Simba, you want to help?" Pumbaa asked.

"You bet!" Simba proclaimed with a grand jump of excitement.

"Timon are you in?" Pumbaa asked.

"I'm _in_, jeesh. Okay you've won, we'll help out the mooky travelers." Timon said. Pumbaa snorted happily, and approached Alex and the gang, with Simba and Timon by his side.

"So, how can we help?" Simba asked. Alex stood with a reluctant look on his face, and tried to explain.

"Oh wow guys, you see, I d-ddon't t-think, uh…." Alex stuttered. Gloris stepped out from the crowd.

"Which one of you knows what a balloon is?" Gloria asked. The three smaller animals stood perplexed, each looking at one another worriedly.

"Oy vey." Alex said with a paw rubbing his eyes.


End file.
